Kęstutis Miškinis
Abstract
Tuberculosis remains an actual problem in Lithuania; however financial data on national expenses to deal with this disease are scarce. The aim of this article is to investigate the effectiveness of the national tuberculosis program in proportion to allocated financing. The financing data on allocations to deal with different tuberculosis forms for 2007–2009 are from “SVEIDRA”, the information system of the National Health Insurance Fund; data on the tuberculosis treatment results for 2007 – 2008 are extracted from the national tuberculosis register; the results achieved are viewed in proportion to financing.
Analysis reveals that the goal of World Health Assembly to cure 85 % of newly detected tuberculosis patients in Lithuania has not been achieved. It is evident that funding of treatment services for newly detected patients is twice less expensive than treatment of repeatedly treated tuberculosis patients, thus almost twice more funds in Lithuania are spent on repeated treatment, twice less funds are used to treat twice larger numbers of newly detected patients. It is presumed that additional funding of social and patient education programmes as well as full supply of tuberculosis drugs could improve tuberculosis programme results and therefore save millions of funds yearly.
Keyword(s): Tuberculosis, financial expenses on tuberculosis, effectiveness of tuberculosis programme
DOI: 10.5200/9
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