Acute viral nasopharyngitis cost-effectiveness of therapy

• In the USA alone, the common cold leads to 75-100 million physician visits annually, at a conservative cost estimate of $7.7 billion per year.
• Americans spend $2.9 billion on over-the-counter drugs and another $400 million on prescribed medicines, both for symptomatic relief.
• More than one-third of patients who saw a doctor received an antibiotic prescription, not only contributes to unnecessary costs ($1.1 billion annually on an estimated 41 million antibiotic prescriptions in the United States), but also has implications for antibiotic resistance.
• An estimated 22-189 million school days are missed annually due to a cold. As a result, parents missed 126 million workdays to stay home to care for their children. When added to the 150 million workdays missed by employees suffering from a cold, the total economic impact of cold-related work loss exceeds $20 billion.^[1]

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