Publication

Cost and impact of meningitis epidemics for the public health system in Burkina Faso

Authored by:

Colombini A, Badolo O, Gessner BD et al.

Full Citation:

Colombini A, Badolo O, Gessner BD et al. 2011. Cost and impact of meningitis epidemics for the public health system in Burkina Faso. Vaccine. 29.

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Additional key concepts from this publication:

Outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases have costly impacts on health systems and governments.

Key Evidence: A large meningococcal meningitis epidemic in Burkina Faso cost the health system an estimated US$7.1 million, representing nearly 2% of the country’s entire annual health budget.

From the VoICE editors: In this study of a 2007 outbreak, 86% of the health system cost covered a reactive vaccination campaign using older polysaccharide vaccines. Routine vaccination with new, conjugate vaccines are expected to prevent or limit future outbreaks and thus reduce these costs.

Vaccines can alleviate the disruptions to health systems and health services caused by disease outbreaks.

Key Evidence: Meningococcal meningitis epidemics in Burkina Faso “… disrupted all health services from national to operational levels,…” according to a 2011 study. Impacts included a shortage of available hospital beds and medicines, a reduction or delay in routine lab analyses for other diseases, longer wait times, and an increase in misdiagnoses by overtaxed health workers.