Cost analysis and budget estimation of the Covid-19 disease vaccination in East Azerbaijan in 1400

Abstract

Abstract Introduction: Significant impact of COVID-19 on the health system and most destructive to the economies around the world means that the vaccination of COVID-19 provides two important functions: a basic health intervention (reduction of mortality and morbidity) and, the much-needed economic stimulus (allows the economy to reopen). Therefore, vaccination as soon as possible is very helpful in maintaining the health of each person, family and all members of society. The probability of getting the disease after the vaccine injection is not zero, and the vaccinated person may have a mild disease or the carrier of the disease after the vaccine injection, but the chance of death due to complications will be greatly reduced. Therefore, anticipating the continued use of Covid-19 vaccines, budgeting for the coming years is necessary considering that the government does not have the capacity to vaccinate the entire society and it will be done in priority groups. Methods: The current study is a cross-sectional study that was conducted with the aim of estimating the cost of vaccination and the budget for vaccination in scenarios based on the type of vaccine, priority groups, effectiveness and side effects. For this purpose, the direct costs related to the health system, the direct costs related to the patients and the lost productivity costs due to absenteeism and premature death were estimated. Part of the data was collected from the vaccination information registration system, information from the Iranian Statistics Center, and interviews. Data analysis was done in Excel and STATA software. The information related to the costs of buying and transferring vaccines, injecting vaccines, side effects, wastage of vaccines is collected, and for the next year, the budget required for vaccination of each of the priority groups is extracted. In order to increase the generalizability of the study results, the costs were calculated and presented separately for pessimistic and optimistic scenarios. Results: This study was conducted with the aim of analyzing the cost and estimating the budget for the vaccination of Covid-19 in East Azarbaijan province in 1400. The total number of covid-19 vaccines injected in East Azerbaijan in 1400 was equal to 6908784. According to the obtained results, the total cost of vaccination was equal to 18,8545,311,070,256, and the average cost for one injection was 2,684,309 rials. Most of the costs were related to the price of the vaccine product. Also, in the budget estimate for the next financial year, the cost of injection among the priority groups was estimated at 60,366,757,356,581 Rials, and the cost was estimated at 5,293,227 Rials per injection. Conclusion: According to the budget estimate for the next financial year and the accurate estimate of the population of the priority groups, it is possible to prevent the purchase or production of additional vaccines, which include most of the cost of vaccination (63.9%) and also lead to the wastage of vaccines over time.Also, according to the population estimate, each vaccination center should only transport the vaccine once in order to reduce costs. And to prevent the awareness of the society about the side effects of vaccination, which sometimes the costs of complications were done due to ignorance about the side effects. Also, in people with an underlying disease, in addition to education about the complications of vaccination, follow-up for several days to avoid the cost of complications. Keywords: COVID-19, Budget estimation, Vaccination, Average cost, Side effects