Cost-Effectiveness and Antimicrobial Resistance in Community-Acquired Pneumonia

Abstract

Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) covers those infections of the lung parenchyma that are not acquired in hospital or a long-term care facility. CAP is a common infectious disease, with annual incidence rates of 1.6 per 1,000 adults in Spain and 11.6 per 1,000 adults in Finland [1, 2]. CAP is associated with significant morbidity and is the leading cause of death due to infection in developed countries [3, 4]. The economic burden of CAP is substantial: in the United States, CAP accounts each year for 10 million physician visits, and about 1 million hospitalizations at an estimated hospital cost of $9 billion [5, 6].