查看文章

Poverty and illness are intertwined. It is a well-documented fact that poverty leads to ill-health. In every society, morbidity and mortality are higher among the poor (Wagstaff 2002). Determinants of lower health status include nutrition, environment, education, lifestyle and access to health care. Less is known about how illness itself can lead to poverty in developing countries. There are two major pathways. The first is through the death or disability of a household income earner. This reduces future income generation and may jeopardize household consumption. After a household has depleted its wealth it may have less capacity to invest in the education of their children. This transmits poverty to the next generation. The second is through the treatment itself, or more exactly its cost. The chain of events is as follows: when someone falls ill, the household faces several different costs (opportunity cost of care giving …