AEGiS-08IAC: The direct costs of hospital care of AIDS patients in Brazil.

8th International AIDS Conference


Amsterdam, Netherlands — July 19-24, 1992

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The direct costs of hospital care of AIDS patients in Brazil.

Int Conf AIDS 1992 Jul 19-24; 8:We51 (abstract no. WeC 1035)
Esteves R, Huang L, Pessoa V, Mallet A, Lima M, Cortes E; Brazilian AIDS/STD Programme, Ministry of Health.

OBJECTIVE: To determine direct costs of hospitalization for AIDS patients in Brazil.

METHODS: We did a pilot study involving 127 AIDS patients admitted to three university hospitals, in four different cities. Medical records were reviewed regarding costs of diagnostics procedures, laboratory tests, XRays, surgeries, and regular drugs. Costs with personnel and more expensive drugs, like AZT, ganciclovir, pentamidine, and others, that are provided free by a special drug program of the National AIDS Program, were not added to the final calculation. In one hospital, costs of AIDS patients were compared to the costs of internal medicine patients.

RESULTS: The medium daily cost was $331.30. The average hospitalization time was 25.3 days (range 3-65). If each patient need only one hospitalization per year, it would cost $8,381.89 to provide hospital care for one year for an patient. In one hospital, the costs of AIDS patients were 1.4 times higher the costs of internal medicine patients. If each patient needs an average of 25.3 days of hospitalization per year, and spend $8,381.89 for each admission, and if Brazil have the estimated 90,000 accumulated AIDS cases up to 1995, it will be necessary to provide a total of 2,277,000 hospital beds, and spend $754,370,100.00 to take care of all those patients, not including special drugs.

CONCLUSIONS: 1) AIDS epidemic will cause a major economic impact in Brazil; 2) Other studies are necessary to extend data on costs of AIDS are extremely necessary. A study on AIDS costs, involving over 600 patients, is being conducted by the National AIDS Program, and more data will be available in the near future.

Keywords: AEGIS, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, Hospitalization, Costs and Cost Analysis, Health Services Needs and Demand, Disease Outbreaks, Economics, Hospital, Brazil, Human, economics, ICA8KWDaegis,acquiredimmunodeficiencysyndrome,hospitalization,costsandcostanalysis,healthservicesneedsanddemand,diseaseoutbreaks,economics,hospital,brazil,human,economics,ica8
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WeC1035

Copyright © 1992 - International AIDS Society (IAS). Reproduction of this abstract (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the IAS.