Economic burden of cholera in the WHO African region

Abstract

BackgroundIn 2007, various countries around the world notified 178677 cases of cholera and 4033 cholera deaths to the World Health Organization (WHO). About 62% of those cases and 56.7% of deaths were reported from the WHO African Region alone. To date, no study has been undertaken in the Region to estimate the economic burden of cholera for use in advocacy for its prevention and control. The objective of this study was to estimate the direct and indirect cost of cholera in the WHO African Region.MethodsDrawing information from various secondary sources, this study used standard cost-of-illness methods to estimate: (a) the direct costs, i.e. those borne by the health-care system and the family in directly addressing cholera; and (b) the indirect costs, i.e. loss of productivity caused by cholera, which is borne by the individual, the family or the employer. The study was based on the number of cholera cases and deaths notified to the World Health Organization by countries of the WHO African Region.ResultsThe 125018 cases of cholera notified to WHO by countries of the African Region in 2005 resulted in a real total economic loss of US$39 million, US$ 53.2 million and US$64.2 million, assuming a regional life expectancies of 40, 53 and 73 years respectively. The 203,564 cases of cholera notified in 2006 led to a total economic loss US$91.9 million, US$128.1 million and US$156 million, assuming life expectancies of 40, 53 and 73 years respectively. The 110,837 cases of cholera notified in 2007 resulted in an economic loss of US$43.3 million, US$60 million and US$72.7 million, assuming life expectancies of 40, 53 and 73 years respectively.ConclusionThere is an urgent need for further research to determine the national-level economic burden of cholera, disaggregated by different productive and social sectors and occupations of patients and relatives, and national-level costs and effectiveness of alternative ways of scaling up population coverage of potable water and clean sanitation facilities.

Indirect cost of non-communicable diseases deaths in the World Health Organization African Region

“…We employed a discount rate of 3% which is commonly used in cost-of-illness studies [23,29,30], burden of disease studies [31,32] and WHO health systems' performance assessment [33,34]. In order to assess the effect of the discount rate on the total non-health GDP loss, a one-way sensitivity analysis was done at 5% and 10% discount rates.…”

“…AAD: Average age at death; AAD 0-4 : Average age at death for those aged 0-4 years; AAD [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] : Average age at death for those aged [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] years; AAD [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] LHKN has a Master's Degree in Educational Administration, Planning and Social Policy from the University of Cape Town (UCT), Cape Town, South Africa and a Bachelor of Education Degree from Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya. She worked for a number of years as a financial advisor at the Old Mutual Life Assurance Company, Nairobi, Kenya.…”

“…Out of the 2.79 million NCD deaths in the region, 8% were in the age bracket 0-4 years, 5.5% in age bracket 5-14 years, 7.3% in age bracket [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] years, 26.4% in bracket group 18.5% in age bracket 60-69 years and 34.4% among those aged 70 years and above. Thus, majority of NCD deaths occurred among those aged 70 years and above.…”

Economic Burden of Infectious Diseases and Benefit of Control and Prevention in Sub-Saharan Africa

“…Conditions like overcrowding, poor sanitation, improper sewage disposal, lack of portable water and lack of personal hygiene. In 2007, a total of 110,837 cases were reported to WHO from countries in Africa, with an estimated economic loss of 60 million dollars [24].…”

Comparison of DOT-ELISA and Standard-ELISA for Detection of the Vibrio cholerae Toxin in Culture Supernatants of Bacteria Isolated from Human and Environmental Samples

“…The serogroups O1 and O139 have been associated with large epidemic outbreaks, the former clusters the serotypes Inaba and Ogawa. The serogroups referred as non-O1 and non-O139 have been associated with occasional outbreaks of cholera-like disease and they can be abundantly isolated from aquatic and estuarine sources [1]. Since clinical cases of severe watery diarrhoea are found to be associated with the isolation of toxin producing bacteria, the identification of cholera toxin is an important step in the diagnosis of cholera disease.…”