Health Care Costs of Diarrheal Disease and Estimates of the Cost‐Effectiveness of Rotavirus Vaccination in Vietnam

Abstract

Vaccination can effectively reduce the disease burden and health care costs of rotavirus-specific diarrhea in Vietnam.

Diarrhea Associated Costs among Children Less Than 5 Years of Age from Health Care Provider and Social Perspectives in Albania

“…The total direct costs of diarrhea in children under the age of 5 years in Albania are higher compared to that of other developing countries. For example, Fischer et al Reported that the total direct costs of diarrhea in children younger than 5 years in Vietnam were approximately $4 million in 2004 [7], but the population of Vietnam is around 25 times higher than that of Albania. In Uzbekistan, the hospitalization cost of a diarrhea case was about $77.8 in 2004 [13] whereas we report an average hospitalization cost of $229 per case.…”

“…As suggested in the literature, rotavirus is a very common cause of severe diarrhea and hospitalization for children under age of five in developed [12,14,16] and developing countries [4]. Numerous studies have shown that rotavirus immunization programs might be cost-effective, even though many aspects have to be taken into consideration such as morbidity and mortality rates due to rotavirus and vaccine price [7,12,13,15]. Besides the actual costs of diarrhea, these very important aspects related to rotavirus immunization should be investigated through carefully designed future studies, in order to help the decision makers to opt for a vaccination program or other potential interventions.…”

“…Diarrheal diseases are associated with a considerable use of health care services and costs (3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8). In USA, the annual rates of hospitalization due to diarrheal diseases range from 35 per 10 thousand children under 5 years of age [4% of all hospitalizations for these age-group] [6] to 97 cases per 10 thousand children [3] whereas approximately one in ten outpatient visits involved diarrheal diseases [2% of all outpatient visits] [6].…”

“…In Mexico, the cost of treating one hospitalized rotavirus diarrhea case was 936 US$ and in total around 6 million US$ were spent during 2004 for hospital services related to this disease [4]. In Vietnam, the total cost of rotavirus disease treatment was $5.3 million in 2004 which comprised of $3.1 million direct medical costs, $0.7 million direct nonmedical costs and $1.5 million indirect costs [7]. In Colombia, diarrhea also constituted a heavy burden for the economy and health system of the country as well [8].…”

A critical literature review of health economic evaluations of rotavirus vaccination

“…Two studies provided incremental costs per DALY averted for Vietnam; for a full course vaccination cost of $10 (€8), the estimated ICERs were $91 (€70) in one study 69 and $550 (€420) in another, 70 from a TPP perspective. The study by Podewils et al 71 showed that cost-effectiveness at different prices is highly dependent upon the level of income of studied countries.…”