This news release was originally published on EurekAlert. Below is an excerpt from the news release.
Co-led by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Program, the Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine Impact Study estimated that continuing the vaccine beyond 2022 would prevent – in the first ten years – more than 100,000 children and adults from contracting pneumococcal disease and save the lives of 14,000 children and adults who would otherwise have died.
The cost per year of healthy life saved (US $153) was considerably less than Kenya’s annual gross domestic product (GDP) per person (US $1,790 in 2018), which meets – and far exceeds – the World Health Organization (WHO) GDP-related threshold for ‘very cost-effective’ health interventions.
The researchers say this study offers important evidence for policymakers at what is a crucial time for countries that have to decide whether to continue vaccine programs that have benefited from Gavi’s subsidy of the cost of vaccines once their economies grow and Gavi support diminishes.