Estimating the value of global investment in immunization programs is critical to helping decision makers plan and mobilize immunization programs and allocate resources required to realize their full benefits. So Yoon Sim, formerly from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and now of the World Health Organization, Elizabeth Watts from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and coauthors estimated the return on investment (ROI) of immunization programs for ten pathogens in ninety-four low- and middle-income countries for the period 2011-30, using data provided by the Vaccine Impact Modelling Consortium and that of other global organizations. Using a cost-of-illness approach, the authors report that for every dollar invested in immunization against the ten pathogens, there was a ROI of 22.2 among the ninety-four countries over the two decades; using a value-of-a-statistical-life approach, the authors calculated the ROI to be 51.8. They conclude that these estimates will inform policy makers and decision makers in funding agencies and will contribute to efforts to mobilize resources for immunization.
###
Health Affairs is the leading peer-reviewed journal at the intersection of health, health care, and policy. Published monthly by Project HOPE, the journal is available in print and online. Late-breaking content is also found through healthaffairs.org, Health Affairs Today, and Health Affairs Sunday Update.
Stay Up To Date With Health Affairs' COVID-19 Resource Center: We've gathered blogs and journal articles, along with relevant content from our journal archive: lessons from previous pandemics, including school closures during the Spanish flu; public health preparedness; and communicating risk.
Project HOPE is a global health and humanitarian relief organization that places power in the hands of local health care workers to save lives across the globe. Project HOPE has published Health Affairs since 1981.
Journal
Health Affairs