Annual costs of large flu epidemic at PLN 5 billion - Ernst&Young
Rynio Productions - Fotolia Rynio Productions - Fotolia / Photographer: Christopher Rynio
The annual costs of a serious flu epidemic in Poland may reach as much as PLN 5 billion. Every season the country loses at least PLN 600 million because of flu, according to a report by Ernst&Young presented at the Flu Forum debate in Warsaw.
A few days ago Ernst&Young published an expertise which showed that indirect flue costs in Poland exceeded PLN 600 million annually. A PLN 286 million loss results from sick leaves, with flu itself being responsible for two-thirds of the total and complications accounting for one-third.
The costs of taking care of infected people, mainly children, amount to ca. PLN 145 million annually. Death or prolonged absence from work resulting from flu complications generate losses amounting to PLN 187 million.
"These are minimal costs of seasonal flu. In reality they are significantly higher," Ernst&Young expert Lukasz Zalicki said. A serious flu epidemic, which statistically appears in Poland every five years, generates much larger losses, exceeding PLN 5 billion in indirect costs.
Flu causes mainly such indirect costs, which make from 82 to 90 percent of all the expenses. They are connected mainly with sick leaves and losses incurred by businesses.
The calculations were presented during a debate designed to show the importance of flu vaccination, which is still used on a little scale in Poland. Only 4.5 percent of Poles were vaccinated in 2011, the smallest number in the EU.
What is more, a declining trend has been observed since 2006. In 2005 almost 4 million doses were bought, which compares to 2.2 million in 2008 and 1.7 million in 2011.
Over one million Poles were infected with flu in each of the seasons of 2010-2011 and 2011-2012. The figure includes only registered infections. 177 and 187 people, respectively, died of flu in the two seasons.
PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland, Zbigniew Wojtasiński
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Przed dodaniem komentarza prosimy o zapoznanie z Regulaminem forum serwisu Nauka w Polsce.
