THE ECONOMICS OF MALARIA CONTROL

Ideally, in devising and assessing policies to control disease, the rules and reasoning of economics should be combined with comprehensive epidemiological information to arrive at the best decisions. Simple economic concepts can be of great practical assistance to policymakers in disease control. This article describes the economic principles to be applied and the kind of information needed to make informed choices about the options for controlling malaria. In this context, the article surveys the research on the costs that malaria imposes on people and economies, discusses bow to assess the costs and effects of interventions used to combat the problem, and identifies the conceptual difficulties and gaps in information that must be bridged before the marriage of the two disciplines can be effectively consummated.