Unit costs for house spraying and bednet impregnation with residual insecticides in Colombia: a management tool for the control of vector-borne disease

Kroeger, Axel, Ayala, C and Lara, Antonieta M. (2002) 'Unit costs for house spraying and bednet impregnation with residual insecticides in Colombia: a management tool for the control of vector-borne disease'. Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology, Vol 96, Issue 4, pp. 405-416.

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Abstract

A study of unit costs and cost components of two malaria-control strategies (house spraying and bednet impregnation with residual insecticides) was undertaken in 11 malaria-endemic states (departmnentos) of Colombia, using data provided by control staff on self-administered questionnaires. The accuracy of the data was verified by personal visits, telephone conversations and complementary information from 10 other states. All the financial-cost components of the malaria-control operations carried out in the previous 6 months, and the results of the control operations themselves (including the numbers of houses sprayed and numbers of bednets impregnated/day) were recorded. The information was stratified according to whether the target communities were 'near' or 'far away' from an operational base, the far-away communities being those that needed overnight stays by the control staff. The main variables analysed were unit costs/house treated, and annual cost/person protected. The results show that house spraying was generally more expensive for the health Services than bednet impregnation. This is particularly the case in 'nearby' communities, where most of those at-risk live. In such communities, spraying one house was 7.2 times more expensive than impregnating one bednet. Even if only those sleeping under an impregnated net were assumed to be protected, the unit costs/person protected in a 'nearby' community were twice as high for house spraying than for bednet impregnation. In 'nearby' communities, where technicians could return to the operational base each evening, insecticides made up 80%, of the total spraying costs and 42%, of the costs of bednet impregnation. In 'far-away' communities, however, salaries and 'per diems' were the most important cost components, representing, respectively, 23%, and 22% of the costs of spraying, and 34% plus 27% of the costs of impregnation. Insecticide wastage and non-use of discounts on insecticide prices (available through the national Ministry of Health) increased the overall costs considerably. The multiple uses of these cost calculations for district health managers are presented.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	WA Public Health > Health Problems of Special Population Groups > WA 395 Health in developing countries WA Public Health > Housing. Buildings. Public Facilities > WA 795 Housing WC Communicable Diseases > Tropical and Parasitic Diseases > WC 750 Malaria WC Communicable Diseases > Tropical and Parasitic Diseases > WC 765 Prevention and control
Faculty: Department:	Groups (2002 - 2012) > Disease Control Strategy Group
Digital Object Identifer (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1179/000349802125001159
Depositing User:	Users 476 not found.
Date Deposited:	29 Nov 2012 14:19
Last Modified:	06 Feb 2018 13:05
URI:	https://archive.lstmed.ac.uk/id/eprint/2951

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