[Use of the economic evaluation in the comparison of different vaccination programs against Haemophilus influenzae type b disease].

Although economic evaluation offers a relevant contribution to the health policy's choices, only few studies appeared so far on its application to the field of vaccinations. The present study compares several hypotheses of vaccination strategies in order to evaluate the opportunity to introduce a vaccination program against Haemophilus influenzae b infection. The vaccination strategies are evaluated in terms of costbenefits, cost-effectiveness and cost-utility. The results show that the highest benefits could be obtained performing mass vaccination in the age-group 0-5 years. Actually this hypothesis, compared to other, offers the best compliance and externalities; furthermore it has the highest ethical value.