Cost Effectiveness of Intermittent Preventive Treatment of Malaria in Infants in Ghana

Aim: In order to integrate malaria Intermittent Preventive Treatment in infants (IPTi) into the Ghana national immunization programme, there was the need to evaluate the feasibility of IPTi by assessing the intervention operational issues including its implementation costs, and its cost effectiveness. Study Design: Cross-sectional study.Place and Duration of Study: Upper East Region, Ghana, between July 2007 and July 2009 Methods: We calculated the costs of administrating IPTi during vaccination sessions; the costs of programme implementation during the first year of implementation (start-up costs) and in routine years (recurrent costs).For the purposes of cost-effectiveness analysis, all economic costs (including financial and opportunity costs) and the net cost were estimated.To estimate the cost effectiveness ratios of IPTi, the aggregate cost of providing the intervention for a reference target population of 1,000 infants was divided by its health outcome.Sensitivity analyses were carried out to understand the results robustness.