This paper is concerned with the cost Cis = aWis + bTis (a, b > 0) of a general stochastic epidemic starting with i infectives and s susceptibles; Tis denotes the duration of the epidemic, and Wis the area under the infective curve. The joint Laplace-Stieltjes transform of (Wis, Tis) is studied, and a recursive equation derived for it. The duration Tis and its mean Nis are considered in some detail, as are also Wis and its mean Mis. Using the results obtained, bounds are found for the mean cost of the epidemic.