Economic impact of schistosomiasis morbidity on households in endemic area of Lake Victoria in Tanzania

Abstract

Tanzania like many developing countries endemic in Schistosomiasis, has no official control programme due to resource constraint. In this study, economic impact of this parasitic disease has been analyzed focusing on the economic costs, current productivity loss, and future productivity loss. It is revealed that, economic costs associated with this disease in endemic area is bigger, especially when consideration is made to explore the hidden opportunity costs such as output loss during the time of seeking treatment as well as reduced labour productivity as a result of infection. Both direct cost and indirect cost equations shows the magnitude of the economic cost borne by households in endemic area. On the other hand, current productivity loss is analyzed by using a developed labour productivity index. Future productivity loss is revealed indirectly thorough the poor school performance of school children, who are identified by the constructed school performance index Thus, poor school performance denies children form increased productivity in future through an increase in their skills. However, these results holds for the given assumptions underlying the study. This means that, the explored impact might have not been revealed if real data were utilized, hence implying weakness in the analytical tools. Thus, bused on the developed analytical tools of this study, the introduction of Schistosomiasis control programme in endemic area is inevitable.