The cost effectiveness of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in the routine infant immunisation programme of The Gambia

Abstract

Abstract Objectives To evaluate the cost effectiveness of the use of nine-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide conjugate vaccine in a routine infant immunisation programme based on the Pneumococcal Vaccine Trial (PVT) study in The Gambia. Methods This was a clinical trial-based cost-effectiveness study conducted as part of the PVT study. The PVT was an intention-to-treat double-blind placebo-controlled trial of a nine-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide conjugate vaccine. The trial was conducted in the eastern parts of The Gambia, West Africa and recruited 17 437 children aged 40–364 days. A deterministic static cohort model was developed to evaluate direct benefits and costs of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in The Gambia's routine immunisation programme. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (iCER) is defined as vaccinating infants against pneumococcal disease compared with no vaccination from a public provider's perspective using The Gambia's 2005 projected under-one-year population. Key findings The results show the use of the vaccine in The Gambia's routine infant vaccination programme to be cost effective using an assumed price of US$5.00 per vial in single-dose vials. Compared with offering no vaccination, the incremental cost per DALYs averted would be 30 DALYs from the public provider perspective. At least 1569 and 340 invasive childhood pneumococcal illnesses and deaths respectively among the cohort would be prevented. In the absence of the vaccine 16 871 DALYs would be lost while with the use of the vaccine 7804 DALYs would be lost. Given the average treatment cost of pneumococcal illnesses to be US$191 (95% confidence interval 180 to 203) the introduction of the vaccine programme would lead to an additional cost of US$274 279 (about US$8.43/child). Conclusions The availability of a cost-effective vaccine that can prevent thousands of pneumococcal illnesses and related deaths is a major development towards improving the disease burden in sub-Saharan African countries. This study supports the introduction of nine-valent pneumococcal vaccine into the infant immunisation programme of The Gambia as it is cost effective and will avert many preventable deaths and illnesses. Despite differences in distribution of serotypes between countries, the static model used in the analysis makes the results applicable to other developing countries, particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa.