Cost savings of pneumococcal vaccination in children with nephrotic syndrome in a low-middle-income country

Excerpt

In countries without universal healthcare facilities, healthcare costs (direct and indirect) can rapidly deplete the finances of affected families and add to the morbidity and mortality burden of the country, indirectly affecting the economic future. A detailed medical profile of 60 children with nephrotic syndrome, admitted to our tertiary care institution, with Streptococcus pneumoniae sepsis was described earlier, with 10% mortality, and no child received any pneumococcal vaccine (PCV) [1]. Our institution functions as a charitable non-governmental quaternary care centre in south India. The details of the direct medical costs incurred by patients and the amounts paid by patients are mentioned in Table 1. The median hospital stay was 8 (interquartile range 5, 10) days. Each admission costs nearly 14 (7, 37) times the price of one PCV. Costs of medical care did not differ between children under 5 years at admission and those above (p = 0.71). Most patients could not foot the complete hospital bill, and the estimated median concessions provided by the hospital was 40 (20, 83)% of the final bill amount. …