The 2018 annual cost burden for children under five years of age hospitalised with respiratory syncytial virus in Australia

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is one of the principal causes of acute bronchiolitis and respiratory tract infections in young children. Routine RSV surveillance in Australian children is limited; vaccines are in late stage development; prophylactic monoclonal antibody (mAb) treatment is available but expensive; and there has been uncertainty around the cost burden. The objective of this study was to determine the annual cost burden for children under five years of age hospitalised with RSV in a single health service in 2018, with national extrapolation based on published Australian prevalence data. The methods utilised individual patient-level cost data prospectively collected for hospitalised children under five years of age in a tertiary Melbourne paediatric hospital. Results were extrapolated to all Australian children under five years of age to determine the national annual health cost burden, from a healthcare sector perspective over a 12 month time horizon. The results included 363 children with a mean age of 9.2 months (standard deviation, SD: 8.5 months). The mean cost per child was $17,120 (SD: $37,562), with a combined health service cost of $6,214,439. The reported Australian hospitalisation rate for RSV in the target age group ranged from 2.2 to 4.5 per 1,000 children under five years of age, resulting in a 2018 extrapolated cost range of $59,218,844-$121,129,453 for the estimated 3,459-7,075 children affected (combined index and all-cause six-month readmissions). This study concluded that RSV represents a significant cost burden to Australia's health care system. These data are important for future health economic assessments of preventative therapies, such as new RSV mAb treatments and maternal/childhood RSV vaccines, and provides valuable insights to inform health care planning and health policy.