The H1N1 Recap: Counting the Costs of H1N1 Across the Globe

Regional comparisons of the infection impact: Counting the cost of H1N1: local, regional and global

Who counts the cost, when it comes to infection prevention and control locally, regionally and globally? 

Individually and collectively, infection prevention and control is costly. The ultimate cost of the current H1N1 pandemic calculated in retrospect, will likely reveal some startling facts.

What will the ultimate cost be, in terms of human lives? At this time, it is too soon to tell. This cost will be determined in terms of the lives of individuals, couples, families, communities and countries, as well as the global community, as a whole.

Care, compassion and concern, weighed against the monetary cost related to health and wellness, as well as illness, may reveal who cared.

Cost analysis is not everyone's forte. Not everyone knows how to calculate the cost of something, particularly when it involves something as humongous in scope as a pandemic. Individuals can relate to the cost of infection and illness, on a more level. There is time off work, lost wages, the cost of medication and medical care that has to be calculated into any cost equation.

On a larger scale, what will the per capita cost of the H1N1 pandemic be, globally?

When infection and illness is on a family level, the cost begins to multiply rapidly. It multiplies faster, when it involves communities and countries. Globally, the total magnitude of the cost of the H1N1 pandemic would appear to be almost unfathomable and incalculable, at least at this time.

Attempting to count the cost of H1N1, all across the globe, will involve many factors. At some point, various regions will be able to compare the impact of the H1N1 infection in terms of its actual cost to them. There will also be many variables to consider like population, location and number of hospitals.

When one looks at statistical reports with respect to the spread of the H1N1 pandemic, it is obvious that the Americas had the highest infection rate, at the time a pandemic was determined. Mexico is the place where the H1N1 started. Of course, the cost in Mexico is already high, both in terms of lives lost and with regard to the prevention and control of the pandemic. How the world responded to the pandemic that started in Mexico, in terms of care, compassion and commitment will be determined. It may never be possible to weigh this against the actual dollar cost of the H1N1 pandemic.

There will be the lives saved or spared by immediate action, proper hygienic precautions and health care measures, including immunization of large masses

Dollars are not necessarily the criterion used to calculate everything. In fact, when it comes to being fully human and fully alive as human beings, sometimes the dollar factor is that last thing that is taken into consideration and rightly so. Humanitarian action saves people's lives, regardless of the cost. It is the nature of human beings to help each other. The cost of forming, organizing and maintaining various organizations like the WHO has to be calculated, but at the same time, these have a humanitarian element that is important.

When it comes down to calculating the actual cost of the H1N1 in terms of dollars, what ultimately will count will be the humanitarian response of the world, as a whole, to a potentially life-threatening scenario for many people.