Cost-benefit analysis of a prenatal preventive programme against congenital syphilis.

Serologic screening of pregnant women to prevent congenital syphilis has been obligatory in Norway since 1948. Today the incidence of unrecognized, untreated maternal syphilis is approximately 0.2 per 1000 pregnancies. A cost-benefit model is applied to the current prenatal screening programme in Norway. Although may of the benefit parameters are given only an approximate value, or are not valued at all, it was found that the benefit-cost ratio was nearly 2 (1.9), indicating that the economic benefits or savings to the society represent twice the cost of the preventive programme.