Identifying key factors contributing to treatment costs for snakebite envenoming in private tertiary healthcare settings in Tamil Nadu, India.
Background India suffers ~58,000 annual deaths due to snakebites. The 'Big Four' snakes (Russell's viper, Indian cobra, common krait, and saw-scaled viper) that are responsible for most bites cause diverse clinical effects. Delayed treatment increases the risk of serious complications...
Published in: | PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2023
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0011699 https://doaj.org/article/48b072d8844846c6bce94e51016c3af5 |
id |
ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:48b072d8844846c6bce94e51016c3af5 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:48b072d8844846c6bce94e51016c3af5 2024-01-28T10:04:09+01:00 Identifying key factors contributing to treatment costs for snakebite envenoming in private tertiary healthcare settings in Tamil Nadu, India. Anika Salim Jarred Williams Samir Abdel Wahab Tade Adeshokan José R Almeida Harry F Williams Rajendran Vaiyapuri Subramanian Senthilkumaran Ponniah Thirumalaikolundusubramanian Ketan Patel M Fazil Baksh Matthew R Lewin Sakthivel Vaiyapuri 2023-10-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0011699 https://doaj.org/article/48b072d8844846c6bce94e51016c3af5 EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0011699&type=printable https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2727 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735 doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0011699 https://doaj.org/article/48b072d8844846c6bce94e51016c3af5 PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 17, Iss 10, p e0011699 (2023) Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 article 2023 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0011699 2023-12-31T01:49:22Z Background India suffers ~58,000 annual deaths due to snakebites. The 'Big Four' snakes (Russell's viper, Indian cobra, common krait, and saw-scaled viper) that are responsible for most bites cause diverse clinical effects. Delayed treatment increases the risk of serious complications and treatment costs. Although government hospitals offer free treatment for snakebites in India, most patients opt for private healthcare, which is an out-of-pocket expense as they often lack health insurance coverage. This study aims to analyse snakebite treatment costs in private tertiary care hospitals in Tamil Nadu, India and identifies the key factors contributing to treatment costs. Methodology/principal findings The treatment cost details for 913 snakebite victims were collected from 10 private tertiary care hospitals across Tamil Nadu. The data were classified into hospital, pharmacy, investigation, and laboratory costs, and analysed to determine various factors that contribute to the costs. The results demonstrate that the average treatment costs vary widely for different snakes. The hospital and pharmacy costs are higher than investigation and laboratory costs for all snakebites. Notably, Russell's viper bites cost significantly more than the bites from other snakes. Overall, the type of snake, nature of complications, specialist treatments required, and arrival time to hospitals were identified as some of the key factors for higher treatment costs. Conclusions/significance These data demonstrate that ~80% of snakebite patients can be treated with INR 100,000 (~GBP 1000 or USD 1200) or less. This study emphasises the urgent need to improve rural medical care by providing appropriate training for healthcare professionals and essential resources to facilitate early assessment of patients, administer the initial dose of antivenom and refer the patients to tertiary care only when needed. Moreover, the outcome of this study forms a basis for developing appropriate policies to regulate snakebite treatment costs and provide ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Indian PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases 17 10 e0011699 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
spellingShingle |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 Anika Salim Jarred Williams Samir Abdel Wahab Tade Adeshokan José R Almeida Harry F Williams Rajendran Vaiyapuri Subramanian Senthilkumaran Ponniah Thirumalaikolundusubramanian Ketan Patel M Fazil Baksh Matthew R Lewin Sakthivel Vaiyapuri Identifying key factors contributing to treatment costs for snakebite envenoming in private tertiary healthcare settings in Tamil Nadu, India. |
topic_facet |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
description |
Background India suffers ~58,000 annual deaths due to snakebites. The 'Big Four' snakes (Russell's viper, Indian cobra, common krait, and saw-scaled viper) that are responsible for most bites cause diverse clinical effects. Delayed treatment increases the risk of serious complications and treatment costs. Although government hospitals offer free treatment for snakebites in India, most patients opt for private healthcare, which is an out-of-pocket expense as they often lack health insurance coverage. This study aims to analyse snakebite treatment costs in private tertiary care hospitals in Tamil Nadu, India and identifies the key factors contributing to treatment costs. Methodology/principal findings The treatment cost details for 913 snakebite victims were collected from 10 private tertiary care hospitals across Tamil Nadu. The data were classified into hospital, pharmacy, investigation, and laboratory costs, and analysed to determine various factors that contribute to the costs. The results demonstrate that the average treatment costs vary widely for different snakes. The hospital and pharmacy costs are higher than investigation and laboratory costs for all snakebites. Notably, Russell's viper bites cost significantly more than the bites from other snakes. Overall, the type of snake, nature of complications, specialist treatments required, and arrival time to hospitals were identified as some of the key factors for higher treatment costs. Conclusions/significance These data demonstrate that ~80% of snakebite patients can be treated with INR 100,000 (~GBP 1000 or USD 1200) or less. This study emphasises the urgent need to improve rural medical care by providing appropriate training for healthcare professionals and essential resources to facilitate early assessment of patients, administer the initial dose of antivenom and refer the patients to tertiary care only when needed. Moreover, the outcome of this study forms a basis for developing appropriate policies to regulate snakebite treatment costs and provide ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Anika Salim Jarred Williams Samir Abdel Wahab Tade Adeshokan José R Almeida Harry F Williams Rajendran Vaiyapuri Subramanian Senthilkumaran Ponniah Thirumalaikolundusubramanian Ketan Patel M Fazil Baksh Matthew R Lewin Sakthivel Vaiyapuri |
author_facet |
Anika Salim Jarred Williams Samir Abdel Wahab Tade Adeshokan José R Almeida Harry F Williams Rajendran Vaiyapuri Subramanian Senthilkumaran Ponniah Thirumalaikolundusubramanian Ketan Patel M Fazil Baksh Matthew R Lewin Sakthivel Vaiyapuri |
author_sort |
Anika Salim |
title |
Identifying key factors contributing to treatment costs for snakebite envenoming in private tertiary healthcare settings in Tamil Nadu, India. |
title_short |
Identifying key factors contributing to treatment costs for snakebite envenoming in private tertiary healthcare settings in Tamil Nadu, India. |
title_full |
Identifying key factors contributing to treatment costs for snakebite envenoming in private tertiary healthcare settings in Tamil Nadu, India. |
title_fullStr |
Identifying key factors contributing to treatment costs for snakebite envenoming in private tertiary healthcare settings in Tamil Nadu, India. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Identifying key factors contributing to treatment costs for snakebite envenoming in private tertiary healthcare settings in Tamil Nadu, India. |
title_sort |
identifying key factors contributing to treatment costs for snakebite envenoming in private tertiary healthcare settings in tamil nadu, india. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0011699 https://doaj.org/article/48b072d8844846c6bce94e51016c3af5 |
geographic |
Arctic Indian |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Indian |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 17, Iss 10, p e0011699 (2023) |
op_relation |
https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0011699&type=printable https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2727 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735 doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0011699 https://doaj.org/article/48b072d8844846c6bce94e51016c3af5 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0011699 |
container_title |
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases |
container_volume |
17 |
container_issue |
10 |
container_start_page |
e0011699 |
_version_ |
1789329741228015616 |