Produtividade Perdida Associada a Doenças Negligenciadas na América do Sul (2019)

Abstract

Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a group of infectious diseases that predominate in tropical and subtropical areas and disproportionately affect people living in poverty. These diseases cause devastating health, social and economic consequences for more than a billion people and are often associated with environmental conditions. This study estimated the loss of productivity related to premature mortality in 2019 due to NTDs for the countries of South America (SSA). Mortality data was used to estimate permanent lost productivity, using a proxy from the human capital approach (HCA). Mortality data was taken from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2019, on the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) website. Correlation analyses were carried out between socioeconomic, demographic and health variables of the countries, extracted from databases such as: the International Social Security Association (ISSA), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), together with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the World Bank (WB). The total number of deaths from NTDs in SSA in 2019 was 13,635, with 5,450 deaths in the productive age groups, 40% of the total deaths related to NTDs on this continent. As for Years of Potential Life Lost (YPLL), 93,657 years were lost, affecting more men (58,815 years) than women (34,842 years). The total permanent loss of productivity was approximately US$ 132 million and US$ 281 million in PPP. The cost per death was US$ 28,087. The variation in the scenarios points to the robustness of the estimates, even with significant differences between countries. The low mortality of NTDs, diseases that become chronic and debilitating, increases the social and economic burden on individuals, families and governments in the long term. It is concluded that because they impose a lower economic and social burden on most SSA countries than other groups of diseases, NTDs become even more neglected. Despite the global effort promoted by the World Health Organization (WHO) to promote interventions in NTDs, more economic studies are needed to assess the impact of interventions in these diseases