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Cost-Benefit Analysis of Active Vaccination Campaigns Against Hepatitis A Among Daycare Centre Personnel in Israel

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Abstract

Objective: To evaluate, in economic terms, active vaccination campaigns against hepatitis A in comparison with the use of nonspecific immune globulin for the prevention of the disease among daycare centre employees in Israel.

Setting: Hypothetical analysis of the costs and benefits related to vaccination campaigns of workers currently employed in daycare centres in Israel.

Methods: A cost-benefit analysis was performed, comparing mass and selective active vaccination strategies for the daycare centre working force. Direct and indirect costs of diagnosis, treatment and immunisation as well as productivity loss were considered. A Markov-based model was developed using data from previous epidemiological studies and literature.

Results: The benefit-to-cost ratios of selective and mass active vaccination strategies were 1.50 [net present value (NPV) $US606 396] and 0.04 (NPV-$US2.36 million), respectively (2000 values).

Conclusion: Under these study assumptions, the practice of administering hepatitis A active vaccine to serologically proven non-immune daycare centre workers has a cost-benefit justification, and should be widely considered in countries with a similar hepatitis A epidemiology to that in this study.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Dr Andrea K. Biddle, Dr Ya-Chen Tina Shin, Mrs Elinor C.G. Chumney and Mr David Harrison from the School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA, for their most valuable assistance; Dr Gary M. Ginsberg for supplying most valuable data; and the Fulbright US-Israel Mutual Educational Fund for its financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, PO Box 39040, Tel Aviv, 69978, Israel

    Gabriel Chodick, Yehuda Lerman, Tamar Peled & Shai Ashkenazi

  2. Schneider Children’s Medical Center, Petach-Tiqva, Israel

    Gabriel Chodick, Hava Aloni & Shai Ashkenazi

  3. The National Institute of Occupational & Environmental Health, Ra′annana, Israel

    Yehuda Lerman

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  1. Gabriel Chodick
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  2. Yehuda Lerman
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  3. Tamar Peled
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  4. Hava Aloni
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  5. Shai Ashkenazi
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Correspondence to Gabriel Chodick.

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Chodick, G., Lerman, Y., Peled, T. et al. Cost-Benefit Analysis of Active Vaccination Campaigns Against Hepatitis A Among Daycare Centre Personnel in Israel. Pharmacoeconomics 19, 281–291 (2001). https://doi.org/10.2165/00019053-200119030-00006

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