The objective of this study is to analyze the economic efficiency of Korean's Hepatitis B prevention program by conducting a cost - benefit analysis.
The cost - benefit analysis has been conducted for 1987 and henceforth for two categories of population. The first group are people who are epidemiologically expected to be Hepatitis B virus carriers. The second group are the newborn babies who are epidemiologically expected to be the victims of mother-child vertical transmission on Hepatitis B virus.
The cost of Hepatitis B prevention program is loosely determined by the price of the HBV vaccine. Therefore, for those HBV prevalence rate scenarios where the benefit/cost ratio is shown to be less then one at the current price of vaccine, the magnitude of price reduction necessary to make the benefit/cost ratio to exceed one is calculated.
Finally, although not included in the benefit or cost side of the HBV prevention program, this study elaborates noneconomic, non-quantifiable aspects of the benefits or the costs of the program.
The result of the study shows that when the Hepatitis B prevention program is conducted for the suspected HBV carriers only, the benefit/cost ratios ranges from 0.28 to 6.43 as the ratio is determined by the scenarios about prevalence rate and discount rate. When it is assumed that Hepatitis B prevention program is conducted for the world-be victims of the mother-child vertical transmission of HBV, the benefit/cost ratio exceeds one, regardless of the assumption made about the discount rate. The policy implication is clear - a top priority should be given to the public health program aimed at interrupting the mother-child vertical transmission of HBV.
