Measles Containment Expensive But Effective

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The estimated cost of preventing measles spreading widely when a single case was identified in Iowa amounted to $142,452, according to a report in the medical journal Pediatrics.

The cost was much greater than the estimated $700 direct cost of treating one case of the disease. Nevertheless, the containment efforts were deemed a success as only 2 of about 1000 susceptible individuals in contact with the patients actually came down with measles.

Moreover, the efforts may have been cost saving as well. Had all the susceptible contacts become infected, the cost would have been $704,000.

The findings are based on an economic analysis of the containment efforts employed in Iowa in 2004 when a measles-exposed student returned from India while he was in the infectious phase of the disease.

More than 2500 hours of personnel time were used in various containment activities, such as contacting exposed fellow passengers and setting up vaccination clinics, lead author Dr. Gustavo H. Dayan, from the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, and colleagues note.

Over 2000 phone calls were received from the public, and staff involved in the containment drove a total of 2243 miles. Much time was spent on investigating reports of possible secondary cases in contacts of contacts. About 75 percent of the estimated $142,452 expenditure involved personnel costs and overhead.

"The vigorous containment efforts developed during this outbreak," the investigators conclude, "were probably cost-saving and may have been-life saving."

SOURCE: Pediatrics, July 2005.