Department of Clinical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, TU, KSA, P.O. Box 888, Haweiah 21974, Saudi Arabia.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Oct 23;19(21):13789. doi: 10.3390/ijerph192113789.
When a viral outbreak occurs, governments are obligated to protect their citizens from the diverse adverse effects of the disease. Health policymakers often have several interventions to consider based on the health of the population, as well as the cascading social and economic consequences of the possible mitigation strategies. The current outbreak of the monkeypox virus has elicited debate on the best mitigation strategy, especially given that most world economies are still recovering from the harsh economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper sought to analyze the costs and benefits of three possible strategies and determine which option has the best health outcomes and positive economic effects. A case study of Jeddah was performed, whereby a model was simulated to determine the number of infections over 28 days based on one case of the monkeypox virus. Findings reveal that the vaccination provides the best intervention, as it effectively reduces the transmission rate and prevents loss of lives in the city. From the model, only three people were infected over the research period, while no deaths were reported. Although vaccination incurs a huge direct cost at the beginning, in the long run, it saves the economy from the disease's financial burden in terms of productivity loss from work absenteeism and premature deaths.
当病毒爆发时，政府有责任保护公民免受疾病的各种不利影响。基于人口健康状况，以及可能的缓解策略带来的连锁社会和经济后果，卫生政策制定者通常有多种干预措施可供考虑。目前猴痘病毒的爆发引发了关于最佳缓解策略的争论，特别是考虑到大多数世界经济体仍在从 COVID-19 大流行的严峻经济影响中复苏。本文旨在分析三种可能策略的成本和收益，并确定哪种方案具有最佳的健康结果和积极的经济影响。对吉达进行了案例研究，通过模拟模型来确定基于一例猴痘病毒的情况下 28 天内的感染人数。研究结果表明，接种疫苗是最佳干预措施，因为它可以有效降低传播率，并防止城市中的生命损失。根据模型，在研究期间只有三个人感染，并且没有死亡报告。尽管疫苗接种一开始会产生巨大的直接成本，但从长远来看，它可以使经济免受疾病带来的经济负担，例如因工作缺勤和过早死亡而导致的生产力损失。
