Noroviruses, responsible for gastroenteritis, kill 219,000 per year worldwide, especially in less developed countries. They represent a burden of $ 64 billion.
Acute gastroenteritis is a digestive infection with inflammation of the lining of the intestine. It is responsible for nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, but above all for many deaths around the world.
Noroviruses, responsible for gastroenteritis, affect nearly 700 million people. They cause 219,000 deaths each year in the world, mainly in the least developed countries. This very heavy human toll is obviously accompanied by a very salty slate.
The addition is estimated at $ 60.4 billion, according to a study from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, published April 26 in the journal Plos One.
That is some 4.2 billion dollars in medical care costs and 60.3 billion in lost productivity each year, specify these researchers who for the first time have quantified the economic burden of this infection. “We especially hear about these viruses when there are outbreaks of gastroenteritis on cruise ships or linked to a restaurant but these infectious agents are everywhere … and no one is immune,” explained Dr Sarah Bartsch, main author of the work.
No vaccine or antiviral
The mathematical model created by American scientists is based on 233 countries, regions or territories for which the United Nations has population data. The objective of this work was to mobilize the attention of the authorities and the public to be able to better combat this virus, against which there is still no antiviral or vaccine. “In comparison, the economic burden of rotavirus, responsible for fatal diarrhea in young children but without danger beyond the age of five, was estimated at two billion per year before the development of an effective vaccine”, indicate Researchers.
Dr. Bruce Lee, co-author of the study, concludes: “The costs associated with norovirus are high, higher than for many diseases including those caused by rotaviruses, which have attracted much more attention. Our research presents an economic case for paying more attention to norovirus infections that have been ignored for too long ”.
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