Examining malaria treatment and prevention spending efficiency in malaria-endemic countries, 2000-2020

Area of Science:

• Global Health
• Health Economics
• Infectious Disease Epidemiology

Background:

• Malaria remains a significant global health burden, causing 750,000 deaths in 2021.
• Despite past progress, malaria control funding and outcomes have stagnated, necessitating efficient spending strategies.
• Understanding optimal resource allocation is critical for effective malaria intervention.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze malaria spending patterns across endemic countries from 2000-2020.
• To identify specific types of malaria expenditures associated with improved health outcomes.
• To assess country-level efficiency in malaria control spending.

Main Methods:

• Utilized disaggregated malaria spending data from WHO, National Health Accounts, and Global Burden of Disease studies.
• Generated country-specific spending estimates, disaggregated by funding source and program area.
• Employed stochastic frontier analysis and linear regression to link spending patterns with malaria incidence and fatality rates.

Main Results:

• Significant variation in malaria spending exists, often correlating with the disease burden.
• Countries like the Philippines and Sri Lanka demonstrated low fatality ratios relative to spending.
• Increased donor funding and spending on prevention correlated with better incidence efficiency; anti-malarial medicine spending improved case fatality efficiency.

Conclusions:

• Prioritizing spending on prevention, anti-malarial medicines, and health systems strengthening can simultaneously reduce malaria cases and deaths.
• Enhanced availability, collection frequency, and quality of disaggregated spending data are vital for evidence-based malaria control.
• Improved data will support efforts to strengthen spending efficiency and leverage malaria funding to address health equity gaps.