Malaria is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in African countries. It is one of the leading causes of hospital visits and hospitalization in pediatric wards for children under 5 years old. Interestingly however, the economic burden of this disease remains unknown in these endemic countries including Gabon. The purpose of this study is to assess the direct hospital cost for the management of malaria in children under 5 years old at the Libreville University Hospital Centre (CHUL, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Libreville) in Gabon. This research work is a retrospective study using a comprehensive review of medical records of patients seen at the CHUL over a two-year period extending from January 2018 through December 2019. The study focused on children under 5 years old, admitted for malaria in the paediatric ward of the CHUL. The analysis targeted specifically direct hospital costs, which excluded salary and wages of health care workers. The monetary currency used in this study was the CFA francs, as that currency is the one used in Central Africa (as reference, 1 Euro = 656 CFA francs). For the set timeframe, 778 patient records matched the study criteria. Thus, out of 778 admitted patients, 58.4% were male while 41.5% were female. Overall, the average age was 13.2 months (± 13.8 months). The total cost incurred by the hospital for the management of these 778 malaria patients was 94,922,925 CFA francs (144,699.58 €), for an average expense per patient topping at 122,008 CFA francs (185.99 €). The highest expenditure items were hospitalizations (44,200,000 CFA francs, 67,378.1 €), followed by drugs (26,394,425 CFA francs, 40,235.4 €) and biomedical examinations (14,036,000 CFA francs, 21,396.34 €). The financial burden for managing malaria in the paediatric ward seems to be very high, not only for the hospital, but also for families in spite of the government medical insurance coverage in some cases. These findings bring new insights as to the urgency to develop policies that foster preventive initiatives over curative approaches in the management of malaria in children in endemic countries.

中文翻译：

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与加蓬 5 岁以下儿童疟疾临床分期管理相关的直接成本评估

疟疾是非洲国家发病率和死亡率的主要原因之一。它是 5 岁以下儿童在儿科病房就诊和住院的主要原因之一。然而，有趣的是，在包括加蓬在内的这些流行国家，这种疾病的经济负担仍然未知。本研究的目的是评估加蓬利伯维尔大学医院中心（CHUL，Center Hospitalier Universitaire de Libreville）治疗 5 岁以下儿童疟疾的直接医院成本。这项研究工作是一项回顾性研究，对从 2018 年 1 月到 2019 年 12 月的两年期间在 CHUL 就诊的患者的医疗记录进行了全面审查。该研究主要针对 5 岁以下儿童，在 CHUL 的儿科病房因疟疾入院。该分析专门针对直接医院成本，其中不包括卫生保健工作者的工资和工资。本研究中使用的货币是非洲金融共同体法郎，因为该货币是中非使用的货币（作为参考，1 欧元 = 656 非洲金融共同体法郎）。在设定的时间范围内，778 份患者记录符合研究标准。因此，在 778 名入院患者中，58.4% 为男性，41.5% 为女性。总体而言，平均年龄为 13.2 个月（± 13.8 个月）。医院管理这 778 名疟疾患者的总费用为 94,922,925 非洲法郎（144,699.58 欧元），每位患者的平均费用高达 122,008 非洲法郎（185.99 欧元）。支出最高的项目是住院费用（44,200,000 非洲法郎，67,378.1 欧元），其次是药品（26,394，425 非洲法郎，40,235.4 欧元）和生物医学检查（14,036,000 非洲法郎，21,396.34 欧元）。在儿科病房管理疟疾的经济负担似乎非常高，不仅是医院，还有家庭，尽管在某些情况下有政府医疗保险。这些发现为制定政策的紧迫性提供了新的见解，以促进在流行国家儿童疟疾管理中采取预防措施而不是治疗方法。