Vaccine-Preventable Disease Outbreak Costs: Implications for State and Local Public Health

Background:
Vaccine-preventable disease (VPD) outbreaks can levy a significant economic burden associated with local public health response. This underscores the need for readily available and efficient public health infrastructure. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and some local public health departments have developed tools to assist in capturing VPD outbreak response costs. The objective of this workshop will be to: 1) present practical tools that health departments have used to capture VPD outbreak costs; and, 2) present relevant examples of how response cost data were used for evaluation, planning, and program advocacy.

Setting:
The CDC and the City of San Diego, City of Milwaukee and State of Iowa Health Departments will present and highlight tools used to track costs associated with recent mumps and measles outbreaks and potential data uses.

Population:
Outbreak response cost data are useful in assessing and describing public health agency resource allocation and documenting overall fiscal impact for administrators, policymakers and public interest groups .

Project Description:
VPD outbreaks can result in morbidity that can trigger large-scale prevention and control activities by local public health agencies. These measures often result in considerable economic costs to responders and the community. Tracking public health department spending during VPD outbreaks is necessary to assure accountability and proper allocation of taxpayer funds.

Results/Lessons Learned:
Public health department budgets are influenced by costs associated with emergency response including VPD outbreaks. Many local public health agencies lack standardized cost-tracking collection tools that could assist in characterizing actual expenditures and provide a rationale for sustained investment in public health response infrastructure.