Economic analysis of the use of facemasks during pandemic (H1N1) 2009

Abstract

A large-scale pandemic could cause severe health, social, and economic impacts. The recent 2009 H1N1 pandemic confirmed the need for mitigation strategies that are cost-effective and easy to implement. Typically, in the early stages of a pandemic, as seen with pandemic (H1N1) 2009, vaccines and antivirals may be limited or non-existent, resulting in the need for non-pharmaceutical strategies to reduce the spread of disease and the economic impact. We construct and analyze a mathematical model for a population comprised of three different age groups and assume that some individuals wear facemasks. We then quantify the impact facemasks could have had on the spread of pandemic (H1N1) 2009 and examine their cost effectiveness. Our analyses show that an unmitigated pandemic could result in losses of nearly $832 billion in the United States during the length of the pandemic. Based on present value of future earnings, hospital costs, and lost income estimates due to illness, this study estimates that the use of facemasks by 10%, 25%, and 50% of the population could reduce economic losses by $478 billion, $570 billion, and $573 billion, respectively. The results show that facemasks can significantly reduce the number of influenza cases as well as the economic losses due to a pandemic.

Evaluation of the Economic Burden of Diseases Associated With Poor Nutrition Status

“…ARIs of interest included influenza, pneumonia, and bronchitis. All studies followed populations comprising men and women older than 65 years, and all reported hospital costs associated with an ARI, 34 – 38 with the pathology of that ARI (eg, influenza, pneumonia, or bronchitis) not substantially influencing hospital costs 36 . All costs over the course of the ARI—approximately 1 month before to 1 month after any hospitalization 37 , 38 —are estimated to be upwards of 10 times the costs of estimates reporting more acutely accrued costs 36 .…”

Cost-effectiveness analysis of N95 respirators and medical masks to protect healthcare workers in China from respiratory infections

“…The low mean healthcare costs for CRI in both trials may have been due to the relatively modest influenza seasons and low levels of healthcare seeking by staff [14,15]. The existing economic studies on masks/respirators have suggested that the interventions were likely to be cost-effective in the high income settings they examined [28][29][30][31][32]. However, it is difficult to compare the results of our evaluation to these previous high income setting studies as they often did not report results in an easily comparable format (e.g.…”

Evidence-Based, Cost-Effective Interventions To Suppress The COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review

“…Differences in publication date, search strategy, and study selection criteria may explain the discrepancies among these reviews. Tracht et al (2012) Preventive measures in hospitals include use of personal protective equipment for healthcare workers in direct contact with suspected patients. Dan et al (2009) estimated that this measure was cost-effective for H1N1 ($23,600 per death prevented).…”