摘要:
Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is a major global health threat that results not only in health consequences but also economic consequences. Since 2015 the World Health Organization (WHO) has developed a strategy with the aim of ending the global burden of TB by reducing TB-related deaths, reducing TB incidence, and eliminating the burden of TB-related catastrophic costs for patients and their families. In order to reach these targets, we need to implement effective TB diagnostic and care strategies that are feasible for both patients as well as the health care system. -- Methods: This study consists of two manuscripts which assess the economic burden of TB - one from the patient perspective and the other from the health system perspective. The first manuscript is a systematic review aimed to determine the costs incurred by patients and their households while receiving TB care with direct (medical and non-medical) as well as indirect costs being examined for the pre-diagnostic, post-diagnostic and total phase of care. It analyzed studies with varying patient populations from low-, middle-, and high-income settings to help estimate key factors that drive patient costs. Furthermore, it assessed the proportion of patients that incurred catastrophic costs and the coping strategies that they resorted to in order to offset the costs of TB care. The second manuscript is a modelling study which aimed to develop, parameterize and analyze a decision analytic model to determine the cost, health outcomes as measured by disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) averted and the cost-effectiveness of second-generation lateral flow lipoarabinomannan assay (SG LF-LAM) diagnostic algorithms in people living with HIV (PLHIV) per DALY averted. This model examined four different strategies - 1) the standard of care (SOC) Gene Xpert MTB/RIF only, 2) Gene Xpert MTB/RIF plus LF-LAM for all patients, 3) Gene Xpert MTB/RIF plus LF-LAM for patients with a negative Xpert result, and 4) Gene Xpert M