The cost of dengue hemorrhagic fever in Thailand.

The economic burden of DHF patients and of the Thai government in providing treatment and prevention and control of dengue hemorrhagic fever were assessed. Patient burden was reported by caretakers who stayed with the patients when they were admitted to three hospitals: Children's Hospital in Bangkok; Suphan Buri Provincial Hospital and Don Chedi Community Hospital, Don Chedi District in Suphan Buri Province. The hospital costs--medicine and laboratory costs--were collected from the treatment forms and the routine service cost was estimated by the staff of the hospitals. Cost of prevention and control were compiled from the budget report of Departments of the Ministry of Public Health and the Ministry of Interior. Based on 184 DHF patients admitted at the three hospitals, the direct patient costs--treatment cost and the costs of travel, food and lodging--was 66.99 US$ and 61.02 US$ per patient for one episode of DHF in Bangkok and Suphan Buri, respectively. The total patient costs--direct patient costs and opportunity costs were 118.29 US$ for a child patient and 161.49 US$ for an adult patient in Bangkok, 102.82 US$ for a child patient and 138.02 US$ for an adult patient in Suphan Buri. The net hospital cost in providing treatment for each DHF patient was 54.6 US$ and 38.65 US$ in Bangkok and Suphan Buri, respectively. The total cost of prevention and control of DHF in Thailand from government agencies in 1994 was 4.8724 million US$. Based on these findings, the whole expenditure of Thailand for DHF in 1994, would be at least 12.596 million US$, of which 54.8% was from the government budget, the rest, 45.2%, was the expenses paid by 51,688 patients and their families. The study concluded that in recording the economic-loss of DHF both the expenditures of the government and also the patient costs--direct and indirect--should be taken into account.