Cost-effectiveness analysis of PCR for the rapid diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis

BMC Infectious Diseases

Table 2 Costs in US$ of TB diagnosis in Brazil

A. Health service costs
	Staff Number	Salaries of all staff per year (US$)	Staff Cost per day (US$)	Time spent until access to result (days)
AFB smear plus Culture	2	9,260	39	30
AFB smear plus PCR-dot-blot	2	9,260	39	3
B. Laboratory costs
	Equipment (US$)	Annualization Years	Running costs per 1000 suspects (US$)	Running costs per examination (US$)
AFB smear plus Culture ^a	22,667	5	12,333	12.33
AFB smear plus PCR-dot-blot ^b	20,000	5	12,833	12.83
C. Estimated costs incurred by patients, including costs for travel, food and income loss ^d
	AFB smear plus Culture (US$) (outpatients and inpatients)		AFB smear plus PCR dot-blot (US$) (inpatients and outpatients)
Travel	1,000		1,000
Food	3,000		3,000
Income Loss ^c	186,800		30,000
Total patients Cost	190,800		34,000

^a Microscopic and Laminar Flow Cabinets,;
^bThermocycler reader, Centrifuge and Laminar Flow Cabinets. Other equipments were not included,
^c Income loss of patients was calculated from monthly salary base of Brazil (US$117) and was based on proportional days spent by patients until access to the result of each laboratory procedure. Patient costs were estimated using the average of two visits to the laboratory for the PCR procedure and for AFB smear and culture procedures for outpatients; Travel cost was considered as US$ 0.8 (one way by bus). Food was considered as US$3.3 per meal. Base salary in Brazil was considered (US$5. 83 per day/20 days of the work). For inpatients was considered just income loss; Staff costs in the laboratory were based on proportional days spent on each laboratory procedure;Costs of consumables and equipment were provided by the program as well as by the manufacturer. We annualized the capital cost of the equipment for 5 years, according to the literature [25]. PCR capital costs included the cost of the thermocycler, reader and centrifuge. Building costs were not included. Opportunity costs were not applicable.

ISSN: 1471-2334