Societal Costs of a Measles Outbreak

Abstract

Background and objectives: Between December 31, 2018, and April 26, 2019, 72 confirmed cases of measles were identified in Clark County. Our objective was to estimate the economic burden of the measles outbreak from a societal perspective, including public health response costs as well as direct medical costs and productivity losses of affected individuals.

Methods: To estimate costs related to this outbreak from the societal perspective, 3 types of costs were collected or estimated: public health response (labor, material, and contractor costs used to contain the outbreak), direct medical (third party or patient out-of-pocket treatment costs of infected individuals), and productivity losses (costs of lost productivity due to illness, home isolation, quarantine, or informal caregiving).

Results: The overall societal cost of the 2019 Clark County measles outbreak was ∼$3.4 million ($47 479 per case or $814 per contact). The majority of the costs (∼$2.3 million) were incurred by the public health response to the outbreak, followed by productivity losses (∼$1.0 million) and direct medical costs (∼$76 000).

Conclusions: Recent increases in incident measles cases in the United States and across the globe underscore the need to more fully understand the societal cost of measles cases and outbreaks and economic consequences of undervaccination. Our estimates can provide valuable inputs for policy makers and public health stakeholders as they consider budget determinations and the substantial value associated with increasing vaccine coverage and outbreak preparedness as well as the protection of society against vaccine-preventable diseases, such as measles, which are readily preventable with high vaccination coverage.

FIGURE 1

Daily case count and estimated public health monthly labor costs for containment-related activities for 2019 Clark County measles outbreak