Estimating the Incidence of Cases and Deaths Resulting from Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease and Its Related Socioeconomic Disease Burden in Republic of Korea (2010 - 2014).

Abstract

ObjectivesHand, Foot and Mouth disease (HFMD) is a highly contagious viral disease that affects young children and frequently causes epidemics. A vaccine is available in China (enterovirus 71) and, the Republic of Korea took the first step to develop a new vaccine. New vaccine development requires that disease burden is calculated in advance so the financial cost, morbidity and mortality can be measured.MethodsData from National Sentinel Surveillance and health insurance systems of 1 million claimants were used. Direct medical and non-medical costs, indirect (caregiving and premature death) costs, cases and related deaths were summarized.ResultsFrom 2010 to 2014, there were an estimated 3,605 to 9,271 cases of HFMD, with 1 to 3 deaths. The estimated socioeconomic disease burden ranged from 80.5 to 164.2 million USD and was similar to that of hepatitis A (93.6–103.8 million USD). Among each costs, costs of caregiving consisted of highest proportion mainly due to hiring caregivers (50% – 60%) or opportunity costs from day off (62% – 69%).ConclusionConsidering the social impact of HFMD, the estimated socioeconomic disease burden is not high and government policies need to focus on reducing the loss of work in caregivers.