Measurement of the personal cost of illness due to some major water-related diseases in an Indian rural population.

A field study, aimed at measuring the personal cost of illness from five major water-related diseases was undertaken in a rural area of Uttar Pradesh (India) in 1981-82. The diseases included in the study were--enteric fever, acute diarrhoeal diseases, infective hepatitis, conjunctivitis and scabies. The measurement of the cost of illness included information on losses in productivity and treatment costs. The annual costs of illnesses per 100 people in 1981 were Rs 7353 (US $525) for enteric fever, Rs 5333 (US $381) for acute diarrhoeal diseases, Rs 7364 (US $526) for conjunctivitis, Rs 1839 (US $131) for scabies and Rs 211 (US $15) for infective hepatitis. In 1982, costs for above diseases were Rs 8622 (US $616), Rs 5191 (US $371), Rs 3289 (US $235), Rs 7402 (US $529) and Rs 323 (US $23) respectively. The aggregate annual costs of illnesses due to the above five diseases per person ranged between Rs 221 (US $16) and Rs 248 (US $18) in the two years.