Factors Affecting Malaria Epidemics and Its Economic Impacts on Households in Ajegunle, Lagos State, Nigeria

Abstract

Malaria is one of the most common and deadly diseases, especially in sub-Saharan and tropical African countries, including Nigeria. Over the years, malaria epidemic affected about 3 million people in Nigeria. The disease does not only affect income or spending of individuals and households but also economic growth of the country. The major objectives of this study are (1) to estimate the costs of malaria to a household living in Ajegunle city, and (2) to build a logistic model which predicts the probability of occurrence of malaria based on a set of variables. One apparent pattern of the cost model was that a few spent more on direct costs of malaria while in terms of indirect costs slightly over 50 percent of respondents forwent income in case of illness or death due to malaria. The logistic model indicated that the use of any form of anti-malarial drugs did not reduce the malarial infection, only quinine among them found some empirical support in this study. Insecticide-treated bednets was the only mechanism which showed a promise to reduce the spread of malarial infection. Households that increased malaria treatment expenditures experienced lower level of probability of malaria occurrence under ceteris paribus conditions.