Malaria Creates Serious Financial Burdens for Impoverished Families in Cameroon

Malaria creates a "heavy" financial burden for impoverished families in Cameroon, and many patients continue to take ineffective drugs to treat the disease, the Cameroon Tribune/AllAfrica.com reports. Poor families currently spend more than 34% of their incomes on malaria treatment alone, while more affluent families allocate less than 2% of their incomes to treatment, according to the Tribune/AllAfrica.com. In addition, approximately 44% of low-income patients take malaria treatments at home rather than at a medical facility. Low-quality malaria medications also are "widely hawked" by vendors who lack "basic" medical training and who do not consider the seriousness of the infection, a patient's age or medical history, the Tribune/AllAfrica.com reports. Data from the World Health Organization's Roll Back Malaria Africa Malaria Report 2003 indicate that chloroquine is one of the leading medications prescribed to malaria patients in Cameroon even though Minister of Public Health Urbain Olanguena Awono prohibited its use in 2002 because is has proven ineffective in some areas of the country (Nkematabong, Cameroon Tribune/AllAfrica.com, 10/27/04).