OBJECTIVES

To determine the difference in costs and the economic impact of dengue in the Colombian health system using the cases reported in different sources of official information, “los Registros Individuales de Prestación de Servicios de Salud- RIPS” (Individual Registries of Provision of Health Services) and “el Sistema de Vigilancia en Salud Pública- SIVIGILA” (Public Health Surveillance System).

METHODS

The direct medical costs were estimated for the three groups according to the WHO classification: (A) patients managed ambulatory, (B) patients who must be hospitalized and (C) patients who require emergency treatment and intensive care. The resources were identified and a base case was constructed according to the information sources: Algorithm for the clinical care of cases of dengue and severe dengue of the National Institute of Health of Colombia, a PAHO study on the economic impact of dengue in Mexico, RIPS and a survey of five experts. The economic impact for the Colombian health system was estimated using the number of cases reported in RIPS according to the geography of the provider and in SIVIGILA. For the valuation, the Tariff Manual ISS 2001 + 35% was used.

RESULTS

The direct medical costs per capita for (A) were USD 18, for (B) USD 110 and for (C) USD 1,006. In RIPS, 41,903 cases were reported, the costs of dengue for the health system were estimated at USD 5,008,835; on the other hand, in SIVIGILA 103,822 cases were reported, the total cost was estimated at USD 6,739,159. The difference in economic costs between these two sources is USD 1,738,324 and in the number of cases was 41,903.

CONCLUSIONS

Using two official sources on the same epidemiological event that are reported by the same agents, a significant difference was observed in the number of cases and their economic impact.