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Epidemiological Effectiveness and Cost of a Fungal Meningitis Outbreak Response in New River Valley, Virginia: Local Health Department and Clinical Perspectives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2017

Nargesalsadat Dorratoltaj ,
Margaret L. O’Dell ,
Paige Bordwine ,
Thomas M. Kerkering ,
Kerry J. Redican  and
Kaja M. Abbas
Nargesalsadat Dorratoltaj
Affiliation:
Department of Population Health Sciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia
Margaret L. O’Dell
Affiliation:
New River Health District, Virginia Department of Health, Christiansburg, Virginia
Paige Bordwine
Affiliation:
New River Health District, Virginia Department of Health, Christiansburg, Virginia
Thomas M. Kerkering
Affiliation:
Division of Infectious Diseases, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, Roanoke, Virginia
Kerry J. Redican
Affiliation:
Department of Population Health Sciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia
Kaja M. Abbas*
Affiliation:
Department of Population Health Sciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to Kaja M. Abbas, Department of Population Health Sciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061 (e-mail: kaja.abbas@vt.edu).
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Abstract

Objective

We evaluated the effectiveness and cost of a fungal meningitis outbreak response in the New River Valley of Virginia during 2012-2013 from the perspective of the local public health department and clinical facilities. The fungal meningitis outbreak affected 23 states in the United States with 751 cases and 64 deaths in 20 states; there were 56 cases and 5 deaths in Virginia.

Methods

We conducted a partial economic evaluation of the fungal meningitis outbreak response in New River Valley. We collected costs associated with the local health department and clinical facilities in the outbreak response and estimated the epidemiological effectiveness by using disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) averted.

Results

We estimated the epidemiological effectiveness of this outbreak response to be 153 DALYs averted among the patients, and the costs incurred by the local health department and clinical facilities to be $30,413 and $39,580, respectively.

Conclusions

We estimated the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of $198 per DALY averted and $258 per DALY averted from the local health department and clinical perspectives, respectively, thereby assisting in impact evaluation of the outbreak response by the local health department and clinical facilities. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2018;12:38–46)

Keywords

cost-effectiveness analysisfungal meningitis outbreaklocal health departmentclinicalNew River ValleyVirginia
Type
Original Research
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , February 2018 , pp. 38 - 46
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc. 2017 

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