Determining malaria effects in rural Colombia

Good health is an integral component of the quality of human life, a prerequisite for developing human potential and an important determinant of economic development. When a person is ill from a tropical disease in an agricultural economy, a complex interaction between the individual's welfare and the family's welfare is set in motion. So complex are these interactions that few empirical studies exist on this subject and even where they do, empirical quantification of these interactions and economic losses places the analyst in the minefield of valuing time, ability and contribution to economic welfare. Placing monetary values on these commodities is always a little unsatisfactory since dollar values do not adequately reflect the nature of the losses. Secondly, the ill person's struggle to minimize the economic effects of disease on family income will mask its true impact; thirdly, tropical diseases disproportionately affect low-income groups and therefore measuring the income effects of disease amongst these groups will only reach at the earnings effect, and underestimate the economic implications of tropical disease control. Despite these difficulties, quantification of the economic impact of disease is important from a public health point of view. This study is an attempt at such a task, and focuses on the intra-familial struggle to minimize economic losses due to malaria. Using a case-control approach, time-losses and labour reallocations within the household are examined in an attempt to understand the economic consequences of the disease. One conclusion is that there is no symmetry between the disease burden and the economic burden; in this study the disease burden was greatest amongst males, but the economic impact of this burden was greatest amongst females who postponed or carried out their own activities in addition to caring for the sick and replacing them in farm production.