Anuj Tiwari, Pramilesh Suryawanshi, David Blok, Akash Raikwar, Mohammad Arif and Jan Hendrik Richardus
University Medical Center Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Netherlands Leprosy Relief, India
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Prim Health Care
Statement of the Problem: Leprosy is a public health problem in India. Active case finding campaigns and new preventive methods are under way in some areas. The economic evaluation can provide inform to improve allocative efficiency in limited resource setting. The objective is to estimate the cost of leprosy services at primary care level in two different public health settings. Methodology & Theoretical Orientation: The ingredient based costing was performed at total 8 Primary Health Centers (PHC), purposively selected, in Dadra and Nagar Haveli (DNH) and Umbergaon block of Valsad district. All costs were bootstrapped to estimate robust point estimates. A univariate sensitivity analysis was performed to estimate the variation in total cost under uncertainty. Findings: The mean annual costs for providing leprosy services in a DNH PHC was 29,072 USD (95% CI: 22,125-36,020) and 11,082 USD (95% CI: 8,334- 13,830) in Umbergaon. The human resource cost was the single largest (79% in DNH and 83% in Umbergaon) component. The unit cost for screening a contact of leprosy patient was 1 USD (95% CI: 0.8- 1.2) in DNH and 0.3 USD (95% CI: 0.2- 0.4) in Umbergaon. The unit cost of delivering Single Dose Rifampicin was 3 USD (95% CI: 2.5- 3.7) in DNH. Conclusion & Significance: The annual leprosy cost at primary care level is variable, even between areas of comparable epidemiology. The contact screening cost is not very high, therefore should be sustainable in the program. Trying new preventive approached like Single Dose Rifampicin is resource consuming, but worth trying.
E-mail: dranujtiwari@gmail.com
