Editing Malaria (section)

==Society and culture==
{{see also|World Malaria Day}}

=== Economic consequences ===
[[File:Saving Lives with SMS for Life.jpg|thumb|right|Malaria clinic in Tanzania]]

Malaria is not just a disease commonly associated with [[poverty]]; some evidence suggests that it is also a cause of poverty and a major hindrance to [[economic development]].<ref name="Gollin-2007"/><ref name="Worrall-2005"/> Although [[Tropics|tropical regions]] are most affected, malaria's furthest influence reaches into some temperate zones that have extreme seasonal changes. The disease has been associated with major negative economic effects on regions where it is widespread. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was a major factor in the slow economic development of the American southern states.<ref name="Humphreys-2001"/>

A comparison of average per capita [[GDP]] in 1995, adjusted for [[purchasing power parity|parity of purchasing power]], between countries with malaria and countries without malaria gives a fivefold difference (US$1,526 versus US$8,268). In the period 1965 to 1990, countries where malaria was common had an average per capita GDP that increased only 0.4% per year, compared to 2.4% per year in other countries.<ref name="Sachs-2002"/>

Poverty can increase the risk of malaria since those in poverty do not have the financial capacities to prevent or treat the disease. In its entirety, the economic consequences of malaria has been estimated to cost Africa US$12&nbsp;billion every year. This includes costs of health care, working days lost due to sickness, days lost in education, decreased productivity due to brain damage from cerebral malaria, and loss of investment and tourism.<ref name="Greenwood-2005"/> The disease has a heavy burden in some countries, where it may be responsible for 30–50% of hospital admissions, up to 50% of [[outpatient]] visits, and up to 40% of public health spending.<ref name="WHO-2003"/>

[[File:Malaria Patient, Nyangaton, Ethiopia (15151075077).jpg|thumb|Child with malaria in [[Ethiopia]]]]

Cerebral malaria is one of the leading causes of neurological disabilities in African children.<ref name="Idro-2010"/> Studies comparing cognitive functions before and after treatment for severe malarial illness continued to show significantly impaired school performance and cognitive abilities even after recovery.<ref name="Fernando-2010"/> Consequently, severe and cerebral malaria have far-reaching [[socioeconomic]] consequences that extend beyond the immediate effects of the disease.<ref name="Ricci-2012"/>

===Counterfeit and substandard drugs===
Sophisticated [[counterfeit drugs|counterfeits]] have been found in several Asian countries such as [[Cambodia]],<ref name="Lon-2006"/> [[China]],<ref name="Newton-2008"/> [[Indonesia]], [[Laos]], [[Thailand]], and [[Vietnam]], and are a major cause of avoidable death in those countries.<ref name="Newton-2006"/> The WHO said that studies indicate that up to 40% of artesunate-based malaria medications are counterfeit, especially in the Greater [[Mekong]] region. They have established a rapid alert system to rapidly report information about counterfeit drugs to relevant authorities in participating countries.<ref name="Parry-2005"/> There is no reliable way for doctors or lay people to detect counterfeit drugs without help from a laboratory. Companies are attempting to combat the persistence of counterfeit drugs by using new technology to provide security from source to distribution.<ref name="Gautam-2009"/>

Another clinical and public health concern is the proliferation of substandard antimalarial medicines resulting from inappropriate concentration of ingredients, contamination with other drugs or toxic impurities, poor quality ingredients, poor stability and inadequate packaging.<ref name="Caudron-2008"/> A 2012 study demonstrated that roughly one-third of antimalarial medications in Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa failed chemical analysis, packaging analysis, or were falsified.<ref name="Nayyar-2012"/>

===War===
[[File:"Don't go to Bed with Malaria Mosquito" - NARA - 514146.jpg|thumb|right|World War II poster]]
Throughout history, the contraction of malaria has played a prominent role in the fates of government rulers, nation-states, military personnel, and military actions.<ref name="Russell-2009"/> In 1910, [[Nobel Prize in Medicine]]-winner Sir [[Ronald Ross]] (himself a malaria survivor), published a book titled ''The Prevention of Malaria'' that included a chapter titled "The Prevention of Malaria in War". The chapter's author, Colonel C. H. Melville, Professor of Hygiene at [[Royal Army Medical College]] in London, addressed the prominent role that malaria has historically played during wars: "The history of malaria in war might almost be taken to be the history of war itself, certainly the history of war in the Christian era.&nbsp;... It is probably the case that many of the so-called camp fevers, and probably also a considerable proportion of the camp dysentery, of the wars of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were malarial in origin."<ref name="Melville-1910"/> In British-occupied India the cocktail [[Gin and tonic#History|gin and tonic]] may have come about as a way of taking quinine, known for its antimalarial properties.<ref>{{cite book |vauthors=Bryant BJ, Knights KM |title=Pharmacology for Health Professionals |date=2011 |publisher=Elsevier Australia |isbn=9780729539296 |page=895 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TQV6sLzYsOYC&pg=PA895}}</ref>

The Scottish attempt to build a canal near what is now the Panamanian one was largely defeated by malaria.  Starting with the establishment of "New Caledonia", The Darièn Gap Project drained the kingdom — not yet part of the United Kingdom — of most of its wealth.  The cost of the bail-out from London was the independence of Scotland. 

Malaria was the most significant health hazard encountered by U.S. troops in the South Pacific during [[World War II]], where about 500,000 men were infected.<ref name="Bray-2004"/> According to Joseph Patrick Byrne, "Sixty thousand American soldiers died of malaria during the African and South Pacific campaigns."<ref name="Byrne-2008"/>

Significant financial investments have been made to procure existing and create new antimalarial agents. During [[World War I]] and World War II, inconsistent supplies of the natural antimalaria drugs [[cinchona bark]] and quinine prompted substantial funding into [[research and development]] of other drugs and vaccines. American military organisations conducting such research initiatives include the Navy Medical Research Center, [[Walter Reed Army Institute of Research]], and the [[U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases]] of the US Armed Forces.<ref name="Kakkilaya-2006"/>

Additionally, initiatives have been founded such as Malaria Control in War Areas (MCWA), established in 1942, and its successor, the Communicable Disease Center (now known as the [[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]], or CDC) established in 1946. According to the CDC, MCWA "was established to control malaria around military training bases in the southern United States and its territories, where malaria was still problematic".<ref name="US CDC-2010c"/>