A Case Study on the Disease Burden and Influencing Factors of Imported Malaria Patients in a County-Level Hospital - Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China, 2016-2019.

Xu, Qiuli; Lin, Kangming; Lu, Shenning; Duan, Lei; Zhou, Hongrang; Ma, Xuejiao; Wang, Bei; Xiao, Ning

What is already known on this topic? Imported malaria cases endanger people's health and potentially cause local re-transmission, and they may also cause economic loss on patients' families and society as a whole. What is added by this report? This is the first report to focus on the disease burden of a case study incurred by the imported malaria. The results indicated that the median direct medical cost was 2,904.4 CNY and the median indirect cost was 242.0 CNY for a patient's hospitalization. The economic cost was related to age, time between onset and diagnosis, and days of stay in hospital. What are the implications for public health practice? This study analyzed the main causes based on both direct and indirect economic loss of imported malaria cases to provide general information for the evaluation of the disease burden of imported malaria patients and shed light on the rational allocation of medical resources.