The importance of the economic appraisal of public control and prevention strategies in Greece in the era of economic crisis

The aim of the present paper is to evaluate the economic effectiveness of public control and prevention strategies to tackle two recent epidemics in Greece. Results from the implementation of Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) and Cost Effectiveness Analysis (CEA) are presented for; a) prevention strategy against the 2010 West Nile Virus outbreak in the Region of Central Macedonia and b) control expenditures against the 2011 Malaria outbreak in the Prefecture of Lakonia. CBA is performed by comparing public prevention costs with averted costs that would have arisen from health and nuisance impacts in the subsequent years, while CEA emphasizes on costs required to avert health impacts. CBA and CEA are examined in relation to their potential in informing public decision making in the Greek health sector in the era of financial crisis.