| Echinococcosis is prevalent in the vast western pastoral and agricultural areas in China, threatening the population of nearly 50 million. The main prevalent province is Sichuan, Qinghai, Tibet, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Xinjiang and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. The wide range of prevalence, severe and long duration of illness have made echinococcosis become one of the major infectious diseases seriously endangering people’s health and obstructing socio-economic development in western China. For the control of echinococcosis, Chinese government has launched National Echinococcosis Prevention and Control Plan in 2005, taking comprehensive prevention strategy based on dog control and deworming. Dog deworming is one of the key measures for the control of echinococcosis. It has always been a concern for policy makers that how much fund and how many resourses is needed to maintain dog deworming measures. Therefore, it is pratically important to know the cost of dog deworming in Echinococcosis Prevention and Control Plan in China for guiding the investment for dog deworming measures. In this study, we carried out a survey on the specific processes and operational system of dog deworming project in Daofu, Sichuan province, and measured the distance and time when the dog dewormer visited the households for dog deworming, to calculate the cost of all steps of dog deworming project by the cost allocation method, and to analyze the main factors influencing the cost using statistical methods, and also establish the cost estimation model, in order to provide basic information for improving investment and health resources allocation for the control of echinococcosis.This study investigated the cost data of all steps of dog deworming project in CDC and 30 villages in Daofu county. The mean cost of dog deworming in the 30 surveyed villages was an 3.76 RMB/dog-times, comprising drug cost of 0.38 RMB/dog-times, bait cost of 0.37 RMB/dog-times, drug delivery cost of 0.09 RMB/dog-times, mobilization cost of 0.19 RMB/dog-times, household deworming cost of 2.05 RMB/dog-times, faeces disposal cost of 0.35 RMB/dog-times, training cost of 0.29 RMB/dog-times, and supervision cost of 0.04 RMB/dog-times. Among the deworming steps, household deworming cost occupied the mos (54.54%,2.05 RMB/dog-times); among the cost elements, labour cost had the highest proportion (67.82%,2.55 RMB/dog); among the different-leveled institutions, village-level cost was the most important part (74.96%,2.82 RMB/dog). Labour price was the sensitive factor for cost-estimation in the dog deworming activities. Household deworming work spent the most resourses, and needed the most cost, which was the key link of dog deworming project. According to the actual situation of dog deworming in 30 surveyed villages, the gap between the actual investment and the investment need was estimated to nearly 150 000 RMB.Through field investigation and measurement, we collected the possible factors influencing the cost in the process of dog deworming, such as type of production, transportation, distance between households, coverage ratio of dog deworming in one round and number of dogs raised in the village, and use univariate analysis and multiple linear regression model to find the main influencing factors for cost estimation. The results showed that the cost in the herding village was significantly higher than which in the agricultural village (P<0.05), the cost in deworming by riding a motorcycle was significantly higher than which by walk (P<0.05), and the greater the distance between households, the higher the cost (P<0.05). The result of multiple linear regression analysis showed that the type of production and the distance between households were the main factors influencing the unit cost of dog deworming, and the type of production and the number of dogs raised in village were the main factors influencing the annual cost of dog deworming. If it is possible to get the information about the type of production and the number of dogs, the anuual cost of dog deworming in different villages may be estimated using multiple linear regression model, According to the model estimates, the area of the highest annual cost of dog deworming was Bamei district located in the southeast of Daofu, including the town of Longdeng, Xiede, Bamei and Seka.In summary, dog deworming work had many steps for implemention, and the cost was very high. There was a big gap between the actual investment and the investment need in the cunrrent dog deworming work. It is suggested that the governments should increase investment according to the local situation such as the type of production, the number of dog raised in village and the distance between households, making reasonable health resource allocation, in order to ensure the implementation of dog deworming project. The multiple linear regression model could be used to provide basic information for improving the investment for the control of echinococcosis. |
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