Portuguese health care costs related to asbestos exposure: a cost-of-illness study on mesothelioma hospital admission in the period 2000-2015

Background: Portugal has a temperate climate and low industrialization levels existing in the period after World War II, when asbestos materials were used worldwide, has contributed to the generalized belief of low usage of those materials. - Such supposition lacks confirmation; - There is no specific registry of asbestos-related diseases, workers asbestos exposure or asbestos industrial use; - Mesotheliomas are rare neoplasms strongly related to asbestos exposure so they can be used to understand the possible dimension of past exposure to asbestos; - It was estimated that professional diseases under notification was up to 90% for asbestos-related diseases, mainly mesotheliomas.

Estimativa dos custos com os internamentos hospitalares por mesotelioma como forma de calcular a carga finaceira suportada pelo SNS no período 2000-2015 e que deveria ser suportada pela Segurança Social. Esta situação decorre da subnotificação de participações obrigatórias de doença profissional efetuadas pelos médicos. Nestas circunstâncias, o regime de compensação não pode ser aplicado com prejuízo para os doentes e para o SNS.