Tracking spending on malaria by source in 106 countries, 2000-16: an economic modelling study

Area of Science:

• Global health economics
• Infectious disease control
• Public health policy

Background:

• Malaria control and elimination necessitate coordinated and sustained funding.
• Estimates of domestic malaria spending by source were analyzed across 106 endemic or formerly endemic countries between 2000 and 2016.

Purpose of the Study:

• To estimate domestic malaria spending by source in malaria-endemic countries.
• To analyze trends in government, out-of-pocket (OOP), and prepaid private malaria spending.
• To assess progress towards global malaria funding targets.

Main Methods:

• Collected over 36,000 data points on malaria spending, treatment-seeking, patient care costs, and drug prices.
• Utilized spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression for complete, comparable, and uncertainty-quantified estimates.
• Estimated government spending on patient care and national malaria control programs, alongside OOP spending on treatment.

Main Results:

• Worldwide malaria spending reached US$4.3 billion in 2016, an 8.5% annual increase since 2000.
• Out-of-pocket (OOP) spending grew by 3.8% annually, accounting for $556 million (13.0%) of total spending in 2016.
• Government spending increased by 4.0% annually, totaling $1.2 billion (28.2%) in 2016, with spending sources varying by control or elimination stage.

Conclusions:

• Global malaria spending is increasing but may fall short of the $6.6 billion annual target by 2020.
• Mobilizing additional government resources for malaria control in low-income countries presents a significant challenge.
• Tracking malaria spending is vital for understanding progress and identifying funding gaps in global malaria control efforts.