title: Paediatric treatment costs and the HIV epidemic.
abstract: As the AIDS epidemic puts additional strains on the already overburdened health care systems in sub-Saharan Africa, it becomes more important to estimate the cost of the epidemic in terms of health personnel and drug treatments. A retrospective review of 250 randomly selected paediatric admissions to a referral hospital in Malawi was undertaken. Groupings of "possible/probable AIDS" and "probably not AIDS" were used in a comparative analysis of treatment costs. Estimated costs of treatments were significantly lower than those calculated in a study from Zimbabwe using different methodology. Meningitis was the most expensive condition to treat and accounted for a greater percentage of overall cost than either acute respiratory infection, diarrhoeal disease or measles.
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatrics, Kamuzu Central Hospital, Lilongwe.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Nelson
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Weikert
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Phillips
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000150:complications / Q000191:economics* / Q000628:therapy; D006302:Health Services Research; D017721:Hospital Costs; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008295:Malawi; D008297:Male; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome