Economic Burden of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in Golestan Province

Introduction: Cutaneous leishmaniasis is one of the most important vector-borne diseases that lead to adverse economic consequences. The aim of this study was to determine the economic burden of cutaneous leishmaniasis in endemic areas of this disease in Golestan province in 2015. Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 120 cutaneous leishmaniasis patients referred to health centers in Gonbad-e Kavus, Mraveh Tappeh and Kalaleh counties for treatment. Since extracted the economic burden of cutaneous leishmaniasis and the direct and indirect paid costs with patients and governmental systems with refer on the accounting documents and interviews with patients and experts and recorded in researcher-made forms. This information was entered to Excel (ver. 2010) software. Then, the economic burden of disease was evaluated. Results: In total, more than 653/002/642 rails were spent for treatment of 120 patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis and the average total costs per patient was calculated 5/441/688 (95%CI: 4/867/252 – 6/016/932) rails. In this study, 42.93%, 19/77% and 37/3% of the costs were related to direct medical, direct non-medical and indirect costs paid with patients and governmental services, respectively. Conclusions: Cutaneous leishmaniasis impose heavy economic burden on households and governmental systems. Therefore, it is recommended that the prevention measures of the disease be taken in order to prevent the occurrence of the disease and ultimately lead to a reduction in the cost of treatment.