Costs of tuberculosis for households and health care providers in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Abstract

For patients and their families, tuberculosis implies three main types of cost: drugs, transportation and, most importantly, financial loss due to inability to work. They represent around two thirds of total cost and are a high economic burden for households, in particular those with a low-income. While assessing tuberculosis control strategies such as direct case finding at home, it is therefore important to also include costs incurred at household level.