Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2011, 8 927 Table 6. Cont. Projected Treatment costs per Treatment costs (in percentage cases per 1,000 1,000 people of 2000 health expenditure people (in 2004 USD) per 1,000 people) under Scenario1 Outpatient(a) Inpatient(b) Outpatient (%) Inpatient (%) Mali 5.74 11.95 384.31 0.0 1.2 Mauritania 22.84 47.58 1,530.61 0.1 4.8 Morocco 0.04 0.09 2.87 0.0 0.0 Niger 23.88 49.73 1,599.67 0.2 6.4 Rwanda 106.97 222.79 7,166.67 0.7 22.4 South Africa 0.03 0.06 2.06 0.0 0.0 Sudan 129.26 269.22 8,660.18 0.7 21.7 Togo 19.25 40.10 1,289.89 0.1 2.6 Uganda 8.17 17.03 547.69 0.0 0.7 Tanzania 10.73 22.35 718.98 0.1 2.9 Zimbabwe 29.66 61.78 1,987.38 0.0 1.2 (a) Average outpatient treatment costs are calculated by multiplying the number of projected malaria cases by the average drug prices in Table 5. (b) Average outpatient treatment costs are calculated by multiplying the number of projected malaria cases by the average hospitalization costs in Table 5. 10. Conclusions and Discussion This paper studies the link between malaria cases and climatic factors in 25 African countries observed over 11 years. We conducted an econometric analysis and found that the number of malaria cases per 1,000 people is significantly influenced by climate factors in most of the countries studied, with disease incidence generally increasing under climate change. However, this effect is not uniform across countries as has been found in biophysical malaria modeling studies [16-18]. Additionally, the cost of malaria treatment is projected to increase in most of the countries studied. Socio-economic factors are also found to impact significantly the number of malaria cases. In particular, we found that economic growth and better income distribution help reduce the number of malaria cases. Similarly, an increase in public health expenditures towards prevention and treatment of malaria significantly reduces malaria cases. Thus policies that stimulate economic growth, reduce income inequality and increase public health expenditures would mitigate the impact of malaria. However, longer term climate policies are also desirable. These policies would include policies addressing greenhouse gas emissions reductions and those directed toward disseminating malaria related disease reduction practices plus research on eradication of malaria in Africa. There are a few limitations to this study. Due to the lack of detailed meteorological information in the region, we assumed that all regions within each country are homogeneous and have same temperature and precipitation levels. The study also assumes that the disease response with respect to climatic factors will not change. Future research in understanding the impact of climate factors on malaria and other vector-borne disease may require more collaboration between biophysical scientists and economists.