In Malaria World this week there is a review ‘Global trends and burdens of neglected tropical diseases and malaria from 1990 to 2021: a systematic analysis of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021’ by Chen et al. Its introduction has an interesting un-cited statement ‘Malaria, commonly referred to as the “disease of poverty”’. The paper itself which is a review of trends over the 31 year period has data that shows that the incidence, prevalence, deaths and DALY (disability adjusted life years) have decreased over the timeframe.
But most interestingly it had a figure that shows that the effect on DALY (disability adjusted life years) for neglected tropical diseases and malaria is strongly dependent on SDI (sociodemographic index). These data strongly support the statement above.
A search of the internet provides more evidence. Even the UN for World Malaria Day in 2023 have published a web article entitled ‘Malaria: a disease of poverty’. Gallup and Sachs (Jeffrey) wrote ‘The Intolerable Burden of Malaria: A New Look at the Numbers: Supplement to Volume 64(1) of the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene’ the first line of which is ‘Malaria and poverty are intimately connected’. These articles do maintain the mosquito connection, but state that the reasons for the connection with poverty are unclear. Mosquitos do not differentiate between rich and poor. So perhaps malaria has other causes?