Disease and Labor Productivity
Economic Development and Cultural Change, Vol. 22, No. 3, pp. 414-435, April 1974
23 Pages Posted: 3 Jun 2011
Date Written: April 1974
Abstract
Excerpt from introduction: Our object in this paper is both to advance the understanding of the quantitative impact of parasitic diseases on output and to improve on the theoretical framework within which such estimates are made for any disease and in any region. While the study examines the productivity effects of five parasitic diseases-schistosomiasis, Ascaris (ascariasis), Trichuris (trichuriasis), Strongyloides (strongyloidiasis), and hookworm infection we have focused on schistosomiasis, which has been called the "unconquered plague."
Schistosomiasis is estimated to afflict more than 100 million persons throughout wide areas of predominantly less developed countries of the tropical world; 1 and, ironically, it threatens to become still more widespread as a result of developmental efforts such as water conservation and irrigation projects, which extend habitats for the intermediate snail host of the disease. Although schistosomiasis is the subject of a large and expanding research effort aimed at finding efficient control methods, this disease, like the other four parasitic infections discussed here, is seldom directly implicated as a cause of death, and its human costs are not well understood.
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