Cost analysis of an integrated disease surveillance and response system: case of Burkina Faso, Eritrea, and Mali
Open Access
- 1 January 2009
- journal article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation
- Vol. 7 (1), 1
- https://doi.org/10.1186/1478-7547-7-1
Abstract
Communicable diseases are the leading causes of illness, deaths, and disability in sub-Saharan Africa. To address these threats, countries within the World Health Organization (WHO) African region adopted a regional strategy called Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR). This strategy calls for streamlining resources, tools, and approaches to better detect and respond to the region's priority communicable disease. The purpose of this study was to analyze the incremental costs of establishing and subsequently operating activities for detection and response to the priority diseases under the IDSR. We collected cost data for IDSR activities at central, regional, district, and primary health care center levels from Burkina Faso, Eritrea, and Mali, countries where IDSR is being fully implemented. These cost data included personnel, transportation items, office consumable goods, media campaigns, laboratory and response materials and supplies, and annual depreciation of buildings, equipment, and vehicles. Over the period studied (2002–2005), the average cost to implement the IDSR program in Eritrea was $0.16 per capita, $0.04 in Burkina Faso and $0.02 in Mali. In each country, the mean annual cost of IDSR was dependent on the health structure level, ranging from $35,899 to $69,920 at the region level, $10,790 to $13,941 at the district level, and $1,181 to $1,240 at the primary health care center level. The proportions spent on each IDSR activity varied due to demand for special items (e.g., equipment, supplies, drugs and vaccines), service availability, distance, and the epidemiological profile of the country. This study demonstrates that the IDSR strategy can be considered a low cost public health system although the benefits have yet to be quantified. These data can also be used in future studies of the cost-effectiveness of IDSR.Keywords
This publication has 18 references indexed in Scilit:
- Planning an integrated disease surveillance and response system: a matrix of skills and activitiesBMC Medicine, 2007
- Global and regional burden of disease and risk factors, 2001: systematic analysis of population health dataThe Lancet, 2006
- Cost effectiveness analysis of strategies to combat malaria in developing countriesBMJ, 2005
- Cost of delivering child immunization services in urban Bangladesh: a study based on facility-level surveys.2004
- Economic analysis of the 1996–1997 mass measles immunization campaigns in South AfricaVaccine, 2004
- The economic impact of malaria in Africa: a critical review of the evidenceHealth Policy, 2002
- The economic and social burden of malariaNature, 2002
- Structure and performance of infectious disease surveillance and response, United Republic of Tanzania, 1998.2002
- Comparison of cost-effectiveness of preventive and reactive mass immunization campaigns against meningococcal meningitis in West Africa: a theoretical modeling analysisVaccine, 2001
- Disease surveillance at district level: a model for developing countriesThe Lancet, 1998