For example, the campaign to eradicate Guinea worm, which mostly affects people in Africa, appears to have been quite successful.
I’ll go one better and point to two campaigns that have been practically 100% successful: the eradication of smallpox and the eradication of rinderpest.
Of course, the simple fact that these worked doesn’t mean their costs outweighed their benefits. But the US seems to have saved its contribution to smallpox eradication multiple times over. And I’m unaware of any complete cost-benefit analyses for rinderpest eradication, but this paper on rinderpest control programmes in 10 African countries from 1989 to 1997 suggests that even then they were having a net economic benefit.
I’ll go one better and point to two campaigns that have been practically 100% successful: the eradication of smallpox and the eradication of rinderpest.
Of course, the simple fact that these worked doesn’t mean their costs outweighed their benefits. But the US seems to have saved its contribution to smallpox eradication multiple times over. And I’m unaware of any complete cost-benefit analyses for rinderpest eradication, but this paper on rinderpest control programmes in 10 African countries from 1989 to 1997 suggests that even then they were having a net economic benefit.