Evaluation of the direct medical cost of treating major sickle cell syndrome in children in Ouagadougou

Abstract

The sickle cell disease is a major problem of public health in Burkina Faso. Prevalence of the major sickle syndromes affects approximately 8.42 % of the patients in a hospital environment. The families of these children spend a lot of money on vaccines, medicine, complementary examinations. The objective of our work was to estimate the annual expenses to cause by the sickle disease within families. To this end  we led to the pediatric university hospital Charles de Gaulle and to the holy health center Camille of Ouagadougou a retrospective covering study a period of one year going from January  l^st till  December 31^st, 2011 on  hospitalized or consultant children  from  0 to  15 years old to these structures. The medical cases of these patients were of use to us as sources of data which were collected on an index of collection and treated with the software " Sphinx Lexica ". The average cost of a care in ambulatory is estimated at 4 1 838, 82 FCFA a year and the average cost of the care in hospitalization to 106 688, 70 FCFA. The sickle cell disease thus constitutes a considerable economic weight for our patients and especially families where from the necessity of an implication of the political powers for the implementation of well codified protocols and a subsidy for the care of this affection.