Open AccessAid and the Control of Tuberculosis in P apua N ew G uinea: Is A ustralia's Assistance Cost‐Effective?
Author(s) -
Nguyen HoaThiMinh,
Kompas Tom,
Hickson Roslyn I.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
asia and the pacific policy studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.529
H-Index - 14
ISSN - 2050-2680
DOI - 10.1002/app5.37
Subject(s) - investment (military) , tuberculosis , tuberculosis control , control (management) , value (mathematics) , economics , business , microeconomics , medicine , statistics , mathematics , political science , management , pathology , politics , law
A ustralia supports the control of tuberculosis in P apua N ew G uinea for reasons of aid effectiveness and a desire to decrease the chance of importing tuberculosis to A ustralia. This paper analyses the case for this support using both cost‐utility and cost‐benefit analysis. W e reach three conclusions. First, A ustralia directly benefits from its investment in controlling tuberculosis in P apua N ew G uinea, with a cost of $ US 13 million (in 2012 prices) over 10 years earning a net present value of $ US 22 million. S econd, the longer and more extensive the basic directly observed short course therapy, or basic DOTS , to control tuberculosis, the higher are the returns for A ustralia. F inally, in addition to surpassing all commonly used benchmarks for being a cost‐effective investment for A ustralia, a basic DOTS expansion also generates a health benefit for P apua N ew G uinea that compares well as one of the ‘ten best health buys’ in developing countries.