Efficiency of the incorporation of the hepatitis A vaccine as a combined A+B vaccine to the hepatitis B vaccination programme of preadolescents in schools

Abstract

In 1998, the Department of Health of Catalonia (Spain) began universal vaccination of preadolescents against hepatitisAby replacing the simple hepatitisBvaccine with a combined hepatitisA+Bvaccine. Economic analyses were made of the two alternative strategies: to continue with the simple hepatitisBvaccination or to replace the simple vaccine with a combined hepatitisA+Bvaccine. The analysiswas made from the societal perspective and the time horizon consideredwas 25 years. In the base case, (estimated annual hepatitisAincidence of 15 per 100,000 and incremental price of the hepatitisA+B vaccine over the simple hepatitis B vaccine ofD 1.98) the net present value of the programmewas positive (D +533,708) and the benefit-cost ratiowas 2.58. If the estimated disease incidence were reduced by half, the programmewould still be efficient.