A cost minimization analysis of α2b-interferon supplementation in complex pharmacotherapy of rotavirus infection in newborns

Abstract

Rotavirus is one of the most important causative agents of gastroenteritis in both infants and children orldwide, resulting in high mortality and morbidity, mainly in low-income, developing countries. Respective analysis of medical records of newborns hospitalized with acute gastroenteritis showed that the use of α2b-interferon in complex pharmacotherapy was characterized by faster reverse development of clinical manifestations of the disease than in patients who did not receive interferon. In our study, we also aimed to estimate the effectiveness of α2b-interferon supplementation in combination pharmacotherapy of newborns with suspected rotavirus infection. Achievement of this goal was possible with the construction of a decision tree model and determination of decision rules for inclusion of α2b-interferon supplementation into the complex harmacotherapy. The input parameters of the model were hospitalization days of patients stratified by such igns as the presence or absence of rotavirus infection, as well as the additional inclusion of α2b-interferon upplementation in complex pharmacotherapy. The criterion for prediction and decision-making was global retrospective rotavirus prevalence. The feature of the simulation was that the costs were expressed as relative to each other, which allowed unifying the proposed methodology. Retrospective analysis of the clinical database of Ukrainian newborns with acute diarrhea has proved that the decision of α2b--interferon upplementation as additional treatment could be cost-saving under 7.4 times its lower price.