Cost of visceral leishmaniasis care in Brazil.

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the Brazilian direct and indirect costs of human visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in 2014.

METHODS: Cost-of-illness study on the Brazilian public health system and societal perspective. VL cases registered in the Notifiable Diseases Information System in the year of 2014 were considered. Direct medical costs regarding diagnostic, treatment and care provided to patients with VL were estimated through the top-down approach. The indirect costs related to productivity loss due to premature mortality and morbidity were estimated by means of the human-capital method.

RESULTS: In 2014, 9895 suspected cases of VL were reported in the Notifiable Diseases Information System, and 3453 were later confirmed. There were 234 patients with Leishmania-HIV coinfection underwent a secondary prophylaxis. The total cost of VL in Brazil was US$ 14 190 701.50 (US$ 14 189 150.10 to 14 199 940.53) that varied according to the sensitivity analysis. The total of direct medical costs corresponded to US$ 1 873 681.96 (US$1 872 130.55 to 1 882 920.99), and the majority of costs was associated with hospitalisation (40%), followed by treatment (22%), and secondary prophylaxis (18%). Productivity loss corresponded to US$ 11 421 683.37 for premature mortality and US$ 895 336.18 for work absence due to hospitalisation by the illness.

CONCLUSIONS: VL represents an expensive health problem for the Brazilian public health system and society, mainly because of its productivity loss due to premature mortality. Interventions to reduce VL lethality could have a great impact on decreasing the cost of illness.