摘要：The large decrease in the cost of vaccines against hepatitis virus B prompts a re-examination of nationwide vaccination campaign strategies. The present study estimates the costs and benefits that would result from a viral hepatitis B prevention programme (with no prior screening) targeted at all under-16-year-olds in Israel in 1990 and only neonates in the period 1991-2034. Israel is situated in an area of intermediate endemicity, where the majority of HBsAg carriers are anti-HBe positive. Such a policy would reduce the number of cases of viral hepatitis B in the vaccinated cohort from 654,000 to 270,000 over the period 1990-2059, yielding a benefit-to-cost ratio of 1.88: 1 for the health services only. Inclusion also of the indirect benefits of reduced work absences and mortality would increase the benefit-to-cost ratio to 2.77:1. Even when the benefits arising from the reduction in hepatocellular carcinoma and liver transplants were excluded, the benefit-to-cost ratio for the health services alone would still be 1.41:1. The adoption of such a nationwide inoculation policy appears therefore to be not only medically but also economically justifiable. Full text Full text is available as a scanned copy of the original print version. Get a printable copy (PDF file) of the complete article (1.7M), or click on a page image below to browse page by page. Links to PubMed are also available for Selected References . 757 758 759 760 761 762 763 764 765 766 767
