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ABSTRACT: Background
Economic burden estimates are essential to guide policy-making for influenza vaccination, especially in resource-limited settings.Methods
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.Results
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.Conclusion
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.
SUBMITTER: Tempia S
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6692552 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Tempia Stefano S Moyes Jocelyn J Cohen Adam L AL Walaza Sibongile S Edoka Ijeoma I McMorrow Meredith L ML Treurnicht Florette K FK Hellferscee Orienka O Wolter Nicole N von Gottberg Anne A Nguweneza Athermon A McAnerney Johanna M JM Dawood Halima H Variava Ebrahim E Cohen Cheryl C
Influenza and other respiratory viruses 20190611 5
<h4>Background</h4>Economic burden estimates are essential to guide policy-making for influenza vaccination, especially in resource-limited settings.<h4>Methods</h4>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 es ...[more]