Valuing vaccination

Abstract

Vaccination has led to remarkable health gains over the last century. However, large coverage gaps remain, which will require significant financial resources and political will to address. In recent years, a compelling line of inquiry has established the economic benefits of health, at both the individual and aggregate levels. Most existing economic evaluations of particular health interventions fail to account for this new research, leading to potentially sizable undervaluation of those interventions. In line with this new research, we set forth a framework for conceptualizing the full benefits of vaccination, including avoided medical care costs, outcome-related productivity gains, behavior-related productivity gains, community health externalities, community economic externalities, and the value of risk reduction and pure health gains. We also review literature highlighting the magnitude of these sources of benefit for different vaccinations. Finally, we outline the steps that need to be taken to implement a broad-approach economic evaluation and discuss the implications of this work for research, policy, and resource allocation for vaccine development and delivery.benefit-cost analysis | immunization

Sustained antigen availability during germinal center initiation enhances antibody responses to vaccination

“…vaccination kinetics | antigen retention | humoral response | computational immunology | germinal center formation S ubunit vaccines based on recombinant protein antigens combined with adjuvants can safely elicit protective humoral immune responses in humans, and they have become a cornerstone of modern public health (1,2). Recent advances in structure-based vaccine design (3,4) and progress in the development of adjuvants that are safe and effective for prophylactic vaccines (5) have helped drive the field.…”

A systematic review of health economic evaluations of vaccines in Brazil

“…Even if the societal perspective is adopted, only productivity losses that arise from reduction in productive time due to illness or to care for a sick child are considered. 50,51 A broader approach has been proposed for HEE of public health interventions, to capture impact beyond the health sector, accounting for full benefits of vaccination, such as improved educational attainment, economic growth and reduced health disparities, derived from avoiding physical and cognitive impairment that may be caused by vaccine-preventable diseases. [50][51][52][53] None of the Brazilian HEE included in this review adopted this broader perspective.…”

Systems vaccinology: a promise for the young and the poor

“…In the US alone, publically funded childhood vaccination has prevented approximately 322 million illnesses, 21 million hospitalizations and 732 000 deaths, with net savings of approximately $300 billion in direct costs and more than $1 trillion in total societal costs over the past decade [10,11]. The World Health Organization expanded programme of immunization, and other regional and national programmes have had similarly profound impact in the rest of the world [9,[12][13][14]. Vaccination thus undoubtedly represents one of the most cost-effective, life-saving medical interventions in human history [15][16][17].…”