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Health and economic burden of influenza-associated illness in South Africa, 2013-2015

tetano

Editor, Senior Moderator
Influenza Other Respir Viruses. 2019 Jun 11. doi: 10.1111/irv.12650. [Epub ahead of print]
[h=1]Health and economic burden of influenza-associated illness in South Africa, 2013-2015.[/h] Tempia S[SUP]1,[/SUP][SUP]2,[/SUP][SUP]3,[/SUP][SUP]4[/SUP], Moyes J[SUP]3,[/SUP][SUP]5[/SUP], Cohen AL[SUP]1,[/SUP][SUP]2,[/SUP][SUP]6[/SUP], Walaza S[SUP]3,[/SUP][SUP]5[/SUP], Edoka I[SUP]7[/SUP], McMorrow ML[SUP]1,[/SUP][SUP]2[/SUP], Treurnicht FK[SUP]3[/SUP], Hellferscee O[SUP]3,[/SUP][SUP]8[/SUP], Wolter N[SUP]3,[/SUP][SUP]8[/SUP], von Gottberg A[SUP]3,[/SUP][SUP]8[/SUP], Nguweneza A[SUP]3[/SUP], McAnerney JM[SUP]3[/SUP], Dawood H[SUP]9,[/SUP][SUP]10[/SUP], Variava E[SUP]11,[/SUP][SUP]12,[/SUP][SUP]13[/SUP], Cohen C[SUP]3,[/SUP][SUP]5[/SUP].
[h=3]Author information[/h]

[h=3]Abstract[/h] [h=4]BACKGROUND:[/h] Economic burden estimates are essential to guide policy-making for influenza vaccination, especially in resource-limited settings.
[h=4]METHODS:[/h] We estimated the cost, absenteeism, and years of life lost (YLL) of medically and non-medically attended influenza-associated mild and severe respiratory, circulatory and non-respiratory/non-circulatory illness in South Africa during 2013-2015 using a modified version of the World Health Organization (WHO) worksheet based tool for estimating the economic burden of seasonal influenza. Additionally, we restricted the analysis to influenza-associated severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) and influenza-like illness (ILI; subsets of all-respiratory illnesses) as suggested in the WHO manual.
[h=4]RESULTS:[/h] The estimated mean annual cost of influenza-associated illness was $270.5 million, of which $111.3 million (41%) were government-incurred costs, 40.7 million (15%) were out-of-pocket expenses, and $118.4 million (44%) were indirect costs. The cost of influenza-associated medically attended mild illness ($107.9 million) was 2.3 times higher than that of severe illness ($47.1 million). Influenza-associated respiratory illness costs ($251.4 million) accounted for 93% of the total cost. Estimated absenteeism and YLL were 13.2 million days and 304 867 years, respectively. Among patients with influenza-associated WHO-defined ILI or SARI, the costs ($95.3 million), absenteeism (4.5 million days), and YLL (65 697) were 35%, 34%, and 21% of the total economic and health burden of influenza.
[h=4]CONCLUSION:[/h] The economic burden of influenza-associated illness was substantial from both a government and a societal perspective. Models that limit estimates to those obtained from patients with WHO-defined ILI or SARI substantially underestimated the total economic and health burden of influenza-associated illness.
? 2019 The Authors. Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.


[h=4]KEYWORDS:[/h] South Africa; economic burden; influenza; years of life lost

PMID: 31187609 DOI: 10.1111/irv.12650
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