The monetary burden of cysticercosis in Mexico

by Rachana Bhattarai, Hélène Carabin, Jefferson V. Proaño, Jose Flores-Rivera, Teresa Corona, Ana Flisser, Leith León-Maldonado, Christine M. Budke

Taenia solium cysticercosis is a public health and agricultural problem in many low and middle-income countries where health education, sanitation, pig management practices and meat inspection infrastructure are insufficient. Cysticercosis affects both human and animal health and has important economic consequences. Very few studies have been conducted to evaluate the monetary burden of cysticercosis. This study aimed at estimating the 2015 costs associated with cysticercosis in humans and pigs in Mexico.

The monetary burden of human cysticercosis was estimated based on costs incurred by living with and treating epilepsy and severe chronic headaches associated with neurocysticercosis (NCC). The estimated cost of porcine cysticercosis took into consideration losses due to the reduction in the price of cysticercosis-infected animals. Epidemiologic and economic data were obtained from the published literature, government reports, and setting-specific questionnaires. Latin hypercube sampling methods were employed to sample the distributions of uncertain parameters and to estimate 95% credible regions (95% CRs). All results are reported in 2015 U.S.$.

The overall monetary burden associated with NCC morbidity was estimated at U.S.$215,775,056 (95% CR U.S.$109,309,560 –U.S.$361,924,224), with U.S.$436 (95% CR: U.S.$296 –U.S.$604) lost per patient. If loss of future years of income and productivity due to NCC-associated deaths was included, this value increased by U.S.$54.26 million, assuming that these individuals earned Mexico’s median wage salary. An additional U.S.$19,507,171 (95% CR U.S.$5,734,782 –U.S.$35,913,487) was estimated to be lost due to porcine cysticercosis.

This study suggests that T. solium cysticercosis results in considerable monetary losses to Mexico.