Malaria Safe Initiative (the Guardian 15/04/2016)

On April 25th people across the globe will take part in a wide range of activities to mark World Malaria Day. For half the world every day is world malaria day – a day to keep up the fight against this killer disease.    

Malaria in Tanzania

  • Malaria accounts for 40% of national disease burden and is the leading cause of outpatient cases, inpatient admissions and death of children under 5 years.
  • Malaria costs Sub Saharan Africa $12 Billion annually and is an obstacle to national development.
  • In Tanzania, 91% of the population is at risk and there are over 10-20 million cases annually accounting for death between 60,000 – 80,000 people.
  • Increase in malaria awareness and access to malaria prevention and treatment tools have worked towards decreasing the burden in Tanzania
  • Malaria is a preventable disease and with prompt diagnosis and treatment, likelihood of fatality is greatly reduced

Cost of Malaria

  • 99% of the companies I have talked to cite Malaria as the topmost cause of unplanned staff absenteeism
  • While one instance of malaria may pass quickly, it is a frequently recurring disease and cumulatively results in much lost work over time
  • In addition to ill employees absences, parents may miss work to care for sick children, who are at particular risk for malaria infection
  • On an average, 3 absent days per malaria episode are recorded.
  • Even when the staff returns to work, it takes a few days for the staff to be optimally productive

How Malaria reduces business efficiency

Malaria costs $12 billion per annum globally and consumes upto 25% of the household income. In addition to healthcare costs, upto 3 absent days per episode have been reported.

Malaria is a key barrier to economic development – estimated to slow economic development by 1.3% each year. Costs to companies in malaria endemic areas, such as Tanzania can include:

  • Loss of productivity during absenteeism caused by malaria episodes among employees and their dependents
  • Loss of productivity through malaria-related anemia
  • Acute healthcare expenses
  • Expenses related to deaths/burials of employees and their dependents
  • Inefficiencies and additional human resource expenses for hiring, employing and training of additional staff to compensate for high malaria
  • absenteeism or employees lost due to malaria related causes

Implementing successful malaria workplace programmes can help mitigate these business risks and cut costs.

Studies after studies show that malaria prevention and control programs instituted by companies show reduced absenteeism and reduced medical spending at company clinics or reduced health insurance claims.

Malaria prevention and control programs are highly cost effective and revolve around the ABCD for malaria prevention:

A: Awareness of risks of malaria

B: Bite prevention strategies

C: Antimalarial medication – Chemoprolyphaxis – taking medication exactly as prescribed

D: Prompt and accurate Diagnosis and Treatment

Being Malaria Safe is good business

Malaria Safe Initiative in Tanzania was launched in 2012 to empower the private sector to promote prevention and treatment services in the workplace.

The purpose of Malaria Safe is to encourage companies to invest in protecting their staff against malaria.

It is a simple program to engage the private sector into addressing malaria in workplace and is based on developing 4 pillars, namely:

  1. Education – Malaria awareness will empower staff to prevent malaria, recognize the disease rapidly and treat promptly avoiding serious and complicated illness.
  1. Protection – Against bites and serious illness will greatly reduce malaria cases when they do occur
  1. Visibility – Share what you are doing with others – the MALARIA SAFE family unite and grow as a family of companies addressing the malaria risk in the workplace
  1. Advocacy – To ensure we keep the family of companies growing, ensure the program is not only sustainable, BUT GROWS. The more companies fighting malaria the better – unite against malaria.

Member companies meet on a monthly basis – each company owns their own program and measures and shares success at the monthly meetings.

Reply back to bhakti@impactafya.com with your feedback and we welcome your suggestions for corporate wellness issues you’d like to see covered in our future columns.

Bhakti Shah, MPH is the Founder and Managing Director of ImpactAfya Ltd, collaborating with Workplace Options and Mayo Clinic, USA to provide Corporate Wellness and EAP Solutions in East Africa. Bhakti is also the Immediate Past President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Tanzania and the Vice Chair for Malaria and HIV/AIDS for Rotary District 9211.