Benefits and costs of the schools' BCG vaccination programme

Abstract

By the mid-1980s the schools' BCG vaccination programme will be uneconomic. It is estimated that it will cost about pounds5500 to prevent one case of tuberculosis, the average total cost of which would be between pounds400 and pounds1300 depending on medical policy about the degree of illness for which hospital admission is necessary. In December 1975 the costs of the BCG programme were greater than its monetary benefits, probably by a factor of about 2.