An economic evaluation of implementing a decentralized dengue screening intervention under the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme in Tamil Nadu, South India

BACKGROUND: Lack of effective early screening is a major obstacle for reducing the fatality rate and disease burden of dengue. In light of this, the government of Tamil Nadu has adopted a decentralized dengue screening strategy at the primary healthcare (PHC) facilities using blood platelet count. Our objective was to determine the cost-effectiveness of a decentralized screening strategy for dengue at PHC facilities compared with the current strategy at the tertiary health facility (THC) level. METHODS: Decision tree analysis followed a hypothetical cohort of 1000 suspected dengue cases entering the model. The cost-effectiveness analysis was performed at a 3% discount rate for the proposed and current strategy. The outcomes are expressed in incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) per quality-adjusted life years gained. One-way sensitivity analysis and probabilistic sensitivity analysis were done to check the uncertainty in the outcome. RESULTS: The proposed strategy was found to be cost-saving and ICER was estimated to be −41 197. PSA showed that the proposed strategy had a 0.84 probability of being an economically dominant strategy. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed strategy is cost-saving, however, it is recommended to consider optimal population coverage, costs to economic human resources and collateral benefits of equipment.