Santos-Ocampo, Perla D. Rogacion, Jossie M. text monographic eng

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Child health is an important indicator in measuring national development. this is particularly true in developing countries with meager resources where children constitute a large percentage of the population. One cannot overemphasize its significance in tropical, developing countries like those in Asia and Africa where childhood morbidity and mortality are highest especially in the under-five age bracket. It is also in these countries where infectious diseases consistently rank as major causes of deaths. realizing the short-term and long-term devastating effects on the health of individual children of developing nations and the resulting implications on national development, the formulation of strategies to address these problems in the context of economic evaluation has increasingly become a priority for developing countries. Economic evaluation deals with costs and consequences. It is basically determining which of the available interventions will utilize the least amount of resources without sacrificing the effectiveness of such strategies and the benefits that are gained from their implementation. This paper discusses economic evaluation of strategies to control specific diseases in children in the tropics as published in Disease control Priorities Project (second edition): diarrhea, respiratory diseases, tuberculosis (tb), malaria, HIV/AIDs and malnutrition. It uses cost-effectiveness analysis (cEA) utilizing disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) as the consequence or effect. One DALY represents the loss of one year of equivalent full health. For diarrhea, the most cost-effective strategy is breastfeeding promotion. Improved case management, using the Integrated Management of childhood Illness (IMcI) approach has resulted in significant reduction in mortality in children with Acute respiratory Infections below five years old. Direct Observed therapy short-course(DOts) is currently considered the most cost-effective intervention even in the most severe and infectious forms of tb. the use of combination drug treatment is the most cost-effective strategy in the treatment of malaria. Interventions directed towards both the host and the vector of malaria are also considered cost-effective. Data on cost-effective strategies in preventing AIDs are lacking and treatment strategies are expensive because of the prohibitive cost of drugs used for treatment. community-based health programs have been found to be most cost-effective in the battle against malnutrition.Economic evaluation of interventions and strategies to reduce childhood illness, disability and death has become imperative and is very important in developing countries with limited resources such as those in the tropics.Key Words : economic evaluation; cost-effectiveness analysis; DALY; childhood diseasesFEATURED ARTICLE8 Child health has become the priority of all nations, whether rich or poor, and has become an important indicator for which national development is measured. Control of diseases affecting children has been in the forefront of national and international endeavors. In the State of the World’s Children 20051, the UNICEF estimates that more than one billion children are denied a healthy and protected upbringing, as promised by the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)2 have been formulated to tackle the problem of child health either directly or indirectly and to ensure that the promises of the CRC are kept. The United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals: Implications on Child HealthTable 1 lists the United Nations’ MDGs. Reduction in childhood mortality (goal 4) directly addresses the need to focus on saving the lives of children. Parallel to reducing childhood mortality is the improvement of maternal health (goal 5), which will ensure that children are born healthy. Improving the literacy rate among women by universal primary education (goal 2) and gender equality (goal 3) will translate to better delivery of quality child health care practices. Halting and reversing the spread of malaria, HIV and other diseases (goal 6) focuses on the impact of these Perla D. Santos-Ocampo and Jossie M. Rogacion In: Acta Medica Philippina, 2008 vol 42 (1) pages: 8-16 Quality-Adjusted Life Years Childhood Diseases DALY Disability-Adjusted Life Years https://actamedicaphilippina.upm.edu.ph/index.php/acta/article/view/2362/1693 https://actamedicaphilippina.upm.edu.ph/index.php/acta/article/view/2362/1693 210218 20210218130840.0 D0001J000051