Paediatric treatment costs and the HIV epidemic
Nelson, E.; Weikert, M.; Phillips, J.A.
Central African Journal of Medicine 41(5): 139-144
1995
ISSN/ISBN: 0008-9176 PMID: 7627997 Document Number: 445949
As the AIDS epidemic puts additional strains on the already overburdened health care systems in sub-Saharan Africa, it becomes more important to estimate the cost of the epidemic in terms of health personnel and drug treatments. A retrospective review of 250 randomly selected paediatric admissions to a referral hospital in Malawi was undertaken. Groupings of "possible/probable AIDS" and "probably not AIDS" were used in a comparative analysis of treatment costs. Estimated costs of treatments were significantly lower than those calculated in a study from Zimbabwe using different methodology. Meningitis was the most expensive condition to treat and accounted for a greater percentage of overall cost than either acute respiratory infection, diarrhoeal disease or measles.