[Economic evaluation of influenza vaccine applied to health personnel attending hospitalised oncological patients].

OBJECTIVE: Performing a cost-effectiveness evaluation of influenza vaccine for health workers coming into close contact with oncological patients from the payer's point of view. METHODS: As no evidence was found for influenza vaccine effectiveness in oncological patients, the cost-effectiveness of applying the vaccine to health workers coming into close contact with oncological patients was calculated by means of a decision tree; the payer's point of view was adopted. Costs were evaluated in monetary units and effectiveness was measured by the reduction in length of hospital stay for cancer patients as a result of lesser probability of catching the disease because of vaccinating the health workers. RESULTS: Vaccinating health workers coming into close contact with cancer patients led to savings of $2,978,000 (US$1,324) per day of stay saved. CONCLUSIONS: Vaccinating health workers coming into close contact with cancer patients proved cost-effective, returning health worker contagion probability higher than or equal to 0.02.