ArticleInfluenza and other respiratory viruses2019
Health and economic burden of influenza-associated illness in South Africa, 2013-2015.
Article in Influenza and other respiratory viruses, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 56 citations in OpenAlex.
- Costs of Influenza Illness and Acute Respiratory Infections by Household Income Level: Catastrophic Health Expenditures and Implications for Health Equity.Influenza and other respiratory viruses · 2025Pooled it
- Costs and cost-effectiveness of influenza illness and vaccination in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review from 2012 to 2022.PLoS medicine · 2024Pooled it
- Understanding the Global Burden of Influenza in Adults Aged 18-64 years: A Systematic Literature Review from 2012 to 2022.Advances in therapy · 2023Pooled it
- The epidemiology of seasonal influenza after the 2009 influenza pandemic in Africa: a systematic review.African health sciences · 2020Pooled it
- The economic burden of seasonal influenza - China, 2010-2019.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2026Article
- Symptom-based diagnostic models for common respiratory viral infections: a machine learning and natural language processing study.Infectious Disease Modelling · 2026Article
- Drivers and barriers to influenza vaccination in the post-COVID-19 era in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina: A qualitative study using focus groups with risk groups and in-depth interviews with physicians.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2026Article
- Exploring the role of extreme climate events (ECEs) in the incidence of respiratory disease in South Africa.International journal of biometeorology · 2026Article
- Changes in the Epidemiology of Influenza and Respiratory Syncytial Virus During 2020-2022 Relative to the Pre-COVID-19 Pandemic Period (2017-2020) From Systematic Sentinel Syndromic Surveillance in South Africa.Influenza and other respiratory viruses · 2026Article
- Assessing Community and Social Media Influence to Increase Influenza Vaccine Uptake among Youth in Soweto, South Africa (The Bambisana Study): Protocol for a Mixed Methods Pretest-Posttest Intervention Study.JMIR research protocols · 2025Article
- Annual Estimation of Seasonal Influenza Burden in 6 South American Countries: A Retrospective Analysis of SARInet Surveillance Data to Inform Policies.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2025Article
- A Potential Platform for Future Vaccine Trials Identifies a High Incidence of Symptomatic and Asymptomatic Influenza Infection Among Children Aged 6 to 23 Months in South Africa.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Article
- Home-Based Testing as an Approach to Estimate Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness in South Africa, 2021-2022-A Pilot Study.Influenza and other respiratory viruses · 2024Article
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- Extended cost-effectiveness analysis of interventions to improve uptake of diabetes services in South Africa.Health policy and planning · 2024Article
- Retrospective Analysis of RSV Infection in Pediatric Patients: Epidemiology, Comorbidities, Treatment, and Costs in Dubai (2014-2023).Journal of health economics and outcomes research · 2024Article
- Comparing adults with severe SARS-CoV-2 or influenza infection: South Africa, 2016-2021.Southern African journal of infectious diseases · 2024Article
- The economic burden of RSV-associated illness in children aged < 5 years, South Africa 2011-2016.BMC medicine · 2023Article
- The burden of RSV-associated illness in children aged < 5 years, South Africa, 2011 to 2016.BMC medicine · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
15 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundEconomic burden estimates are essential to guide policy-making for influenza vaccination, especially in resource-limited settings.
methodsWe estimated the cost, absenteeism, and years of life lost (YLL) of medically and non-medically attended influenza-associated mild and severe respiratory, circulatory and non-respiratory/non-circulatory illness in South Africa during 2013-2015 using a modified version of the World Health Organization (WHO) worksheet based tool for estimating the economic burden of seasonal influenza. Additionally, we restricted the analysis to influenza-associated severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) and influenza-like illness (ILI; subsets of all-respiratory illnesses) as suggested in the WHO manual.
resultsThe estimated mean annual cost of influenza-associated illness was $270.5 million, of which $111.3 million (41%) were government-incurred costs, 40.7 million (15%) were out-of-pocket expenses, and $118.4 million (44%) were indirect costs. The cost of influenza-associated medically attended mild illness ($107.9 million) was 2.3 times higher than that of severe illness ($47.1 million). Influenza-associated respiratory illness costs ($251.4 million) accounted for 93% of the total cost. Estimated absenteeism and YLL were 13.2 million days and 304 867 years, respectively. Among patients with influenza-associated WHO-defined ILI or SARI, the costs ($95.3 million), absenteeism (4.5 million days), and YLL (65 697) were 35%, 34%, and 21% of the total economic and health burden of influenza.
conclusionThe economic burden of influenza-associated illness was substantial from both a government and a societal perspective. Models that limit estimates to those obtained from patients with WHO-defined ILI or SARI substantially underestimated the total economic and health burden of influenza-associated illness.
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