Assessing the cost of illness of RSV and non-RSV acute respiratory infections in Nepali children

作者：Neele Rave, Arun K Sharma, Ram Hari Chapagain, Rupesh Shrestha, An Nguyen, Clint Pecenka, Farina L Shaaban, Prakash Joshi, Louis Bont, RSV GOLD III – Health Economics Study Group · 发表于：Journal of Global Health · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.7189/jogh.15.04092 · 被引用次数：8 · 研究领域：Respiratory viral infections research、Viral Infections and Outbreaks Research、Immune responses and vaccinations

Background: Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) bear the greatest burden of the global respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) morbidity and mortality, but lack cost data to evaluate the health-economic impact of RSV burden on families, the healthcare system, and society. This prospective observational study was performed by the RSV GOLD III - Health Economic Research Group and estimated the costs associated with RSV illness in Nepal. Methods: We collected healthcare resource utilisation data from children <2 years old fulfilling the World Health Organization (severe) acute respiratory infections ((S)ARI) case definition over one local respiratory season (July to November 2023) at two public hospitals in Nepal. We used hospital records and caregiver interviews to collect direct medical, direct non-medical, and indirect cost data to generate total per-patient costs. Results: We included 730 patients with a mean age of 6.8 (standard deviation = 5.8) months. RSV infection was confirmed in 72.6% of the inpatients (n/N = 469/646) with SARI. The mean total cost per RSV episode was USD 43 (95% confidence interval (CI) = 25-62) for non-severe, USD 312 (95% CI = 293-332) for severe, and USD 664 (95% CI = 381-947) for life-threatened patients. Of the total costs, the healthcare system incurred USD 16 (36.3%), USD 58 (18.6%), and USD 57 (8.6%) in each category of illness. Household-level costs were 1.4% (USD 19) of the country's gross domestic product per capita for non-severe, 15.1% (US...