ANALYSIS OF COST-OF-ILLNESS DUE TO TYPHOID FEVER IN TERTIARY HEALTH CARE HOSPITALS AND PHARMACEUTICAL EVALUATION OF DIFFERENT BRANDS USED IN THE TREATMENT

The objectives of the current study were to estimate the out-of-pocket costs of illness of blood culture-confirmed typhoid fever, as well as to evaluate the different brands of ciprofloxacin HCl used in the treatment of typhoid fever. Therefore, a comparative study was designed for the assessment of costs of treatment at sixteen public (Government sector) and private tertiary health care hospitals located in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan. On the basis of prescriptions collected from the hospitals, seven different brands of ciprofloxacin HCl prescribed in the treatment of typhoid fever were purchased from retail pharmacies for quality assessment. The mean costs for fourteen days and seven days treatment were analyzed and the overall costs of treatment were high at private health care sectors than public sectors. Model independent approach like similarity factor (f2) was also applied to assess the similarity between the dissolution profiles of different brands, and result indicated that three brands were found to be similar with reference product, while, three were dissimilar. It can be concluded that this cost-effective analysis of antibiotics used in the typhoid fever, will help to the local regularity body as well as WHO to update typhoid fever immunization recommendations. Ciprofloxacin was found an effective antibacterial agent in the treatment of typhoid fever and all brands met the pharmaceutical quality parameters. Thus, physicians, pharmacists and patients can select most appropriate quality brand for the therapy of typhoid fever.