Abstract
Dengue fever, an arbovirus disease transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes, has recently spread rapidly, especially in the tropical countries of the Americas and Asia-Pacific regions. It is endemic in Malaysia, with an annual average of 37,937 reported dengue cases from 2007 to 2012. This study measured the overall economic impact of dengue in Malaysia, and estimated the costs of dengue prevention. In 2010, Malaysia spent US$73.5 million or 0.03% of the country's GDP on its National Dengue Vector Control Program. This spending represented US$1,591 per reported dengue case and US$2.68 per capita population. Most (92.2%) of this spending occurred in districts, primarily for fogging. A previous paper estimated the annual cost of dengue illness in the country at US$102.2 million. Thus, the inclusion of preventive activities increases the substantial estimated cost of dengue to US$175.7 million, or 72% above illness costs alone. If innovative technologies for dengue vector control prove efficacious, and a dengue vaccine was introduced, substantial existing spending could be rechanneled to fund them.
Highlights
Dengue fever (DF), an arbovirus disease transmitted by the Aedes mosquito, has spread rapidly in the past six decades, and 2.5 billion people, about 40% of the world’s population, are at risk of infection
This study aims to estimate the costs of the national dengue vector control program in Malaysia through examination of the inputs and costs incurred by public agencies at all levels of the government
60.7% of dengue vector control costs in the districts were for human resources and 13.6% of the costs were for pesticides
Summary
Dengue fever (DF), an arbovirus disease transmitted by the Aedes mosquito, has spread rapidly in the past six decades, and 2.5 billion people, about 40% of the world’s population, are at risk of infection. The cost of dengue illness, in terms of direct medical costs and costs related to productivity loss and premature mortality, amounted to US $102.2 million in 2009,11,12 the equivalent of 0.05% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) for that year. These estimates still do not provide a complete picture of the national economic burden of dengue, as the costs of disease prevention had not been considered
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