The disease also is one of the most important reasons for the high rate of work and school absence in the country. Malaria is one of the world's deadliest infectious diseases and a major obstacle to development in Africa south of the Sahara. Nearly one million people die from malaria each year in Africa alone, most of them children. The disease accounts for 20 percent of under-five mortality in Africa and constitutes 10 percent of the continent's overall disease burden. Those numbers rise significantly in malarial areas, where the disease accounts for 30 to 50 percent of in-patient admissions and incurs 40 percent of total public health expenditures.
Malaria has severe negative effects on maternal health and birth outcomes.
The economic impacts of malaria are profound. Annual economic growth rates in countries with high malaria transmission over a period of 25 years were 1.3 percent lower than in non-malarious countries, according to the report. Compounded over the fifteen year period 1980 to 1995 this annual drop in growth leads to a 20 percent reduction of GNP per capita.