The economic burden of 'malaria' morbidity on households in Mtoko district of North-Eastern Zimbabwe
This thesis presents the findings of a research on the economic burden of malaria morbidity to rural households in Mtoko district of North-East Zimbabwe. The main objective of this study was to ascertain the household level impacts of direct costs (medical costs, consultation costs, transport costs and other related costs) and indirect costs (lost productive time by malaria sufferers whilst sick, lost time by caretakers whilst caring for the sick) due to malaria sickness. A cross sectional study with both descriptive and analytical features was carried out and the main finding from the research was that the economic costs of seeking malaria care were regressive. In other words the poor were using a higher percentage of their income whilst seeking malaria care. In addition, access to care was very limited for the poor as they either could not afford to access the care because of prohibitive costs or they were geographically too far away from sources of care to easily access it. Furthermore, indirect costs were far higher than direct costs as they constituted a greater percentage of total malaria costs. It was concluded that measures meant to exempt the poor from paying for malaria treatment and care were needed to limit the economic burden of malaria morbidity on poor households. The need to ensure that cheap affordable malaria drugs were available to the affected rural people is imperative.
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations