An analysis of economic costs associated with an outbreak of typhoid fever

We examined the costs of a typhoid fever outbreak caused by exposures to contaminated food over a 47-day period at a restaurant. For the 49 respondents, the patient-related costs (+215,548) were primarily medical expenses (+183,902) and lost income or productivity (+28,603). The estimated patient-related costs for all 80 outbreak-associated cases was +351,920. Had contaminated food continued to be served, the prevention-related costs (+36,500) would have been offset by patient-related costs (+7,488/day) within 5 days.