Voluntary Vaccination Research Articles

Impact of network assortativity on epidemic and vaccination behaviour

The resurgence of measles is largely attributed to the decline in vaccine adoption and the increase in mobility. Although the vaccine for measles is readily available and highly successful, its current adoption is not adequate to prevent epidemics. Vaccine adoption is directly affected by individual vaccination decisions, and has a complex interplay with the spatial spread of disease shaped by an underlying mobility (travelling) network. In this paper, we model the travelling connectivity as a scale-free network, and investigate dependencies between the network's assortativity and the resultant epidemic and vaccination dynamics. In doing so we extend an SIR-network model with game-theoretic components, capturing the imitation dynamics under a voluntary vaccination scheme. Our results show a correlation between the epidemic dynamics and the network's assortativity, highlighting that networks with high assortativity tend to suppress epidemics under certain conditions. In highly assortative networks, the suppression is sustained producing an early convergence to equilibrium. In highly disassortative networks, however, the suppression effect diminishes over time due to scattering of non-vaccinating nodes, and frequent switching between the predominantly vaccinating and non-vaccinating phases of the dynamics.

The role of advanced and late provisions in a co-evolutionary epidemic game model for assessing the social triple-dilemma aspect

In the context of voluntary vaccination, we consider two additional provisions as well as pre-emptive vaccination for a unified model over epidemiology and evolutionary game theory to assess the extent to which advanced and late provisions restrict the spread of disease. To circumvent infection, people can be vaccinated pre-emptively before the epidemic season, but the imperfectness of vaccination or an unwillingness to be vaccinated may cause people instead to either be late-vaccinated or use self-protection. Here, self-protection corresponds to actions such as wearing a mask, washing hands, or using a mosquito net and is defined as the third strategy after pre-emptive vaccination (the first strategy) and late-vaccination (the second strategy). Our model can reproduce multiple social dilemma situations resulting from what is known as the vaccination dilemma (originating from preemptive vaccination), which works on a global time scale (i.e., repeated seasons approaching social equilibrium), and also from two other dilemmas due to late provisions, which work on a local time scale (i.e., every time step in a single season). To reproduce how an individual can acquire information for adaptation from neighbors or the society for a suitable provision, we introduce several strategy-updating rules for both global and local time scales and this behavioral feedback has a significant effect to reducing a transmissible disease. We also establish the social efficiency deficit (SED) indicator for a triple-dilemma game to quantify the existence of a social dilemma. Relying fully on a theoretical framework, our model provides a new perspective for evaluations: (i) how much more advantageous and effective pre-emptive vaccination is in eradicating a communicable disease compared with late provisions such as late vaccination and self-protection, and (ii) the extent of the social dilemma resulting from each of the three provisions, given the new idea of SED. The main effect of the triple-dilemma is that expensive provision displays no SED (no dilemma) until the efficiency or effectiveness of provisions reaches a certain level.

Cost-efficiency analysis of voluntary vaccination against n-serovar diseases using antibody-dependent enhancement: A game approach

Records of epidemics acknowledge immunological multi-serotype illnesses as an important aspect of the occurrence and control of contagious diseases. These patterns occur due to antibody-dependent-enhancement (ADE) among serotype diseases, which leads to infection of secondary infectious classes. One example of this is dengue hemorrhagic fever and dengue shock syndrome, which comprises the following four serotypes: DEN-1, DEN-2, DEN-3, and DEN-4. The evolutionary vaccination game approach is able to shed light on this long-standing issue in a bid to evaluate the success of various control programs. Although immunization is regarded as one of the most accepted approaches for minimizing the risk of infection, cost and efficiency are important factors that must also be considered. To analyze the n-serovar aspect alongside ADE consequence in voluntary vaccination, this study establishes a new mathematical epidemiological model that is dovetailed with evolutionary game theory, an approach through which we explored two vaccine programs: primary and secondary. Our findings illuminate that the ‘cost-efficiency’ effect for vaccination decision exhibits an impact on controlling n-serovar infectious diseases and should be designed in such a manner as to avoid adverse effects. Furthermore, our numerical result justifies the fact that adopting ADE significantly boosted emerging disease incidence, it also suggest that the joint vaccine policy works even better when the complex cyclical epidemic outbreak takes place among multi serotypes interactions. Research also exposes that the primary vaccine is a better controlling tool than the secondary; however, introducing a highly-efficiency secondary vaccine against secondary infection plays a key role to control the disease prevalence.

Assessing the Feasibility of Adapting a School-Based HIV Prevention Intervention to Include Voluntary Male Medical Circumcision and Vaccination for Human Papilloma Virus Prevention.

In 2012, there were 2,454 cases and 1,676 deaths from cervical cancer in Kenya. Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is responsible for 99% of all cervical cancers. National cervical cancer prevention guidelines recommend HPV vaccination among HPV-naïve pre-adolescent girls' prior to onset of sexual activity preferably through school-based interventions. Similarly, Voluntary Male Medical Circumcision (VMMC) programs also reduce sexually transmitted infections like HIV, and ideally should also be conducted prior to the onset of sexual activity. The Families Matter! Program (FMP) is a school-based evidence-based HIV prevention intervention for parents and guardians of pre-adolescents aimed to enhance protective parenting practices in order to reduced sexual risk-taking among adolescents. In this paper we describe how we will recruit a cohort of 55 parent-child dyads in a primary school in Kisumu County then implement and evaluate an adapted FMP program that incorporates VMMC promotion and HPV vaccination in conjunction. It is anticipated that the intervention will enhance parental-child communication about sexual matters, promote safe sexual practices and uptake of biomedical prevention interventions and overall reproductive health among the pre-adolescents

A game-theoretic model of Monkeypox to assess vaccination strategies

Monkeypox (MPX) is a zoonotic disease similar to smallpox. Its fatality rate is about 11% and it is endemic to the Central and West African countries. In this paper, we analyze a compartmental model of MPX dynamics. Our goal is to see whether MPX can be controlled and eradicated by voluntary vaccinations. We show that there are three equilibria—disease free, fully endemic and previously neglected semi-endemic (with disease existing only among humans). The existence of semi-endemic equilibrium has severe implications should the MPX virus mutate to increased viral fitness in humans. We find that MPX is controllable and can be eradicated in a semi-endemic equilibrium by vaccination. However, in a fully endemic equilibrium, MPX cannot be eradicated by vaccination alone.

Game-Theoretical Model of Retroactive Hepatitis B Vaccination in China.

Hepatitis B (HepB) is one of the most common infectious diseases affecting over two billion people worldwide. About one third of all HepB cases are in China. In recent years, China made significant efforts to implement a nationwide HepB vaccination program and reduced the number of unvaccinated infants from 30 to 10%. However, many individuals still remain unprotected, particularly those born before 2003. Consequently, a catch-up retroactive vaccination is an important and potentially cost-effective way to reduce HepB prevalence. In this paper, we analyze a game theoretical model of HepB dynamics that incorporates government-provided vaccination at birth coupled with voluntary retroactive vaccinations. Given the uncertainty about the long-term efficacy of the HepB vaccinations, we study several scenarios. When the waning rate is relatively high, we show that this retroactive vaccination should be a necessary component of any HepB eradication effort. When the vaccine offers long-lasting protection, the voluntary retroactive vaccination brings the disease incidence to sufficiently low levels. Also, we find that the optimal vaccination rates are almost independent of the vaccination coverage at birth. Moreover, it is in an individual's self-interest to vaccinate (and potentially re-vaccinate) at a rate just slightly above the vaccine waning rate.

Herd immunity and a vaccination game: An experimental study.

Would the affected communities voluntarily obtain herd immunity if a cure for COVID-19 was available? This paper experimentally investigates people’s vaccination choices in the context of a nonlinear public good game. A “vaccination game” is defined in which costly commitments (vaccination) are required of a fraction of the population to reach the critical level needed for herd immunity, without which defectors are punished by the natural contagion of epidemics. Our experimental implementation of a vaccination game in a controlled laboratory setting reveals that endogenous epidemic punishment is a credible threat, resulting in voluntary vaccination to obtain herd immunity, for which the orthodox principle of positive externalities fails to account. The concave nature of the infection probability plays a key role in facilitating the elimination of an epidemic.

Strengthening screening for infectious diseases and vaccination among migrants in Europe: What is needed to close the implementation gaps?

Migration to the European Union (EU)/European Economic Area (EEA) affects the epidemiology of infectious diseases, including tuberculosis (TB), HIV, hepatitis B/C, and parasitic diseases. Some sub-populations of migrants are also considered to be an under-immunised group and thus at risk of vaccine-preventable diseases. Providing high-risk migrants access to timely and efficacious screening and vaccination, and understanding how best to implement more integrated screening and vaccination programmes into European health systems ensuring linkage to care and treatment, is key to improving the health of migrants and their communities, alongside meeting national and regional targets for infection surveillance, control, and elimination. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has responded to calls to action to improve migrant health and strengthen universal health coverage by developing evidence-based guidance for policy makers, public health experts, and front-line healthcare professionals on how to approach screening and vaccination in newly arrived migrants within the EU/EEA. In this Commentary, we provide a perspective towards developing efficacious screening and vaccination of newly arrived migrants, with a focus on defining implementation challenges and evidence gaps in high-migrant receiving EU/EEA countries. There is a need now to leverage the increasing momentum around migrant health to both strengthen the evidence-base and to advocate for universal access to health care for all migrants in the EU/EEA, including undocumented migrants. This should include voluntary, confidential, and non-stigmatising screening and vaccination that should be free of charge and facilitate linkage to appropriate care and treatment.

A game-theoretical analysis of poliomyelitis vaccination

Poliomyelitis is a worldwide disease that has nearly been eradicated thanks to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Nevertheless, the disease is currently still endemic in three countries. In this paper, we incorporate the vaccination in a two age-class model of polio dynamics. Our main objective is to see whether mandatory vaccination policy is needed or if polio could be almost eradicated by a voluntary vaccination. We perform game theoretical analysis and compare the herd immunity vaccination levels with the Nash equilibrium vaccination levels. We show that the gap between two vaccination levels is too large. We conclude that the mandatory vaccination policy is therefore needed to achieve a complete eradication.

Herd immunity communication counters detrimental effects of selective vaccination mandates: Experimental evidence

BackgroundLow vaccine uptake results in regular outbreaks of severe diseases, such as measles. Selective mandates, e.g. making measles vaccination mandatory (as currently implemented in Germany), could offer a viable solution to the problem. However, prior research has shown that making only some vaccinations mandatory, while leaving the rest to voluntary decisions, can result in psychological reactance (anger) and decreased uptake of voluntary vaccines. Since communicating the concept of herd immunity has been shown to increase willingness to vaccinate, this study assessed whether it can buffer such reactance effects. MethodsA total of N = 576 participants completed a preregistered 2 (policy: selective mandate vs. voluntary decision) × 2 (communication: herd immunity explained yes vs. no) factorial online experiment (AsPredicted #26007). In a first scenario, the concept of herd immunity was either introduced or not and vaccination either mandatory or voluntary, depending on condition. The dependent variable was the intention to vaccinate in the second scenario, where vaccination was always voluntary. Additionally, we explored the mediating role of anger between policies and intentions. FindingsHerd immunity communication generally increased vaccination intentions; selective mandates had no overall effect on intentions, and there was no interaction of the factors. However, selective mandates led to increased anger when herd immunity was not explained, leading in turn to lower subsequent vaccination intentions. InterpretationExplaining herd immunity can counter potential detrimental effects of selective mandates by preventing anger (reactance). FundingThis study was funded by the University of Erfurt and the German Research Foundation (BE-3979/11–1).

Barriers and facilitators to seasonal influenza vaccination uptake among nurses: A mixed methods study.

To identify the barriers and facilitators to seasonal influenza vaccination uptake among nurses. Seasonal influenza causes significant mortality and morbidity among older people and high-risk groups. Vaccinating nurses against influenza is an essential public health measure to reduce the burden of disease. Yet despite annual recommendations, nurses' influenza vaccine uptake rates remain low. An explanatory sequential mixed methods study design. Qualified nurses attending mandatory training in two large acute hospitals in Ireland. A paper-based questionnaire assessing nurses' knowledge, risk perception, health beliefs and influenza vaccination practices was distributed to a convenience sample of qualified nurses (N=462) between September 2017 - February 2018. A self-selected sample of 35 nurses who completed the questionnaire participated in five focus groups to explore in depth the barriers and facilitating factors associated with their vaccination practices between September 2018 - October 2018. The questionnaire data were analysed statistically and thematic analysis was applied to the qualitative data. The quantitative and qualitative findings were integrated using the Pillar Integration Process. Seven themes emerged: (a) the influence of nurses' knowledge on vaccine uptake; (b) dissemination of information; (c) vaccine fears and concerns; (d) protection, risk and vulnerability: self and others; (e) influencers; (f) accessibility; and (g) organizational pressure. Achieving high vaccine uptake rates among nurses through voluntary vaccination programmes remains a challenge. Multi-faceted influenza campaigns based on the HBM should be prioritized to address dissemination of evidence-based knowledge, accessibility, and external cues to action. Low influenza vaccine uptake among nurses compromises patient safety and contributes to a significant burden on health services. This study identified factors associated with vaccine practices among nurses and will inform the development of specific tailored interventions for nurses.

Impact of a 2-dose voluntary vaccination strategy on varicella epidemiology in Beijing, 2011–2017

BackgroundOne-dose voluntary varicella vaccination for children was introduced in Beijing since 1998. In Oct 2012, a second dose varicella vaccine (VarV) was recommended to further decrease varicella disease and the outbreaks. We describe the impact of the 2-dose voluntary vaccination strategy on varicella epidemiology in Beijing, China. MethodsVaricella incidence rates and outbreak characteristics in 2011–2017 was examined using surveillance data. Varicella vaccination coverage among children born in 2007–2012 was estimated through Beijing children immunization registry system. Vaccine effectiveness (VE) for VarV2 was estimated by screening method. ResultsOverall varicella incidence decreased by 37.8% from 103.2 per 100,000 population in 2011 to 64.2 per 100,000 population in 2017. Incidence declines in children aged <15 years with most significantly decrease by 82.3% in children aged 5–9 years, while no significant change happened in adolescent and adults. A total of 251 outbreaks with 3239 outbreak-related cases were reported in 2011–2017, the number of outbreaks decreased significantly by 50.7% from 69 in 2011 to 34 in 2017. The VarV1 coverage ranged from 85.4% to 92.6% among children 4 year of age and the VarV2 coverage ranged from 40.1% to 72.9% among children 6 year of age in the 2007–2012 birth cohort. Overall VE estimates against all varicella disease was 94.4% (95% CI: 89.9–98.9%) for VarV2. ConclusionsModerate VarV2 coverage has been achieved in Beijing resulting in remarkable declining of the incidence in children. Varicella outbreaks has not been eliminated suggested that measures such as including a 2-dose varicella vaccination in routine immunization program should be taken in the future.

Vaccination against coronavirus: legal issues

This article examines the legal issues related to voluntary vaccination against the novel coronavirus infection COVID-19. It is noted that usage of contract with regards to mandatory vaccinations against coronavirus is impossible, as from the legal perspective, signing a contract is voluntary. Therefore, it is necessary to issue the corresponding legislative act that would not only establish the responsibility, but also ensure right for protection of biological database. There is also a need to settle the matter pertaining to storage of the collected biomaterial, as well as monitoring of the process of testing mass vaccination. There are currently no legislative acts on this issue, which necessitates the development of normative legal acts thereof. The article reviews the legal issues related to voluntary vaccination against the novel coronavirus infection COVID-19. There yet multiple unresolved legal issues regarding the application of new vaccine, requirements for its transportation, and storage of biological materials. It is underlined that if a pedagogue, medical employee, or sales person are not vaccinated against coronavirus, the suspension of this category of citizens or refusal to hire is currently unlawful. This is substantiated by the fact that in order for vaccination against any infectious disease (including COVID-19) to be mandatory, it is essential to make amendments to not only the aforementioned legislative act, but also to the framework law of 11.11.2011 No. 323-FZ &amp;ldquo;On the Fundamentals of Protection of Public Health in the Russian Federation&amp;rdquo;. These legislative acts should ensure the rights of citizens for refusal of medical treatment overall, as well as refusal of preventive vaccinations in particular.

Influenza vaccination and absenteeism among healthy working adults: a cost-benefit analysis.

Seasonal influenza is a highly contagious infection that might lead to serious clinical complications and incurs a conspicuous socio-economic impact. Influenza vaccination is currently recommended only for specific groups of healthy adults (such as healthcare workers) even though it was demonstrated to be effective in reducing absenteeism and decreased workers' productivity during flu epidemic period. The main purpose of this study is to analyse the extent of absences due to illness following a voluntary flu immunization program among the Komatsu Italia Manufacturing company's personnel during the flu season 2017-2018. Secondly, we aimed at performing a cost-benefit analysis of the vaccination campaign from the company's perspective. This is an observational cohort study conducted during the period between the 14th week of 2017 and the 13th week of 2018 (from 03/04/2017 to 01/04/2018). The study population was the personnel of Komatsu Italia Manufacturing S.p.A. on duty during the study period. For each subject the following data were collected: sex, date of birth, professional profile, seasonal influenza immunization status and sick-leave days. Sick-leave days were compared among the influenza epidemic period and the previous one between vaccinated and unvaccinated and any difference in days of absence was considered to be caused by seasonal influenza. Out of 408 employees, 60 (14.7%) accepted the voluntary influenza vaccination. In multivariate analysis (logistic model) an age ≥ 50 years was the only predictor for vaccination acceptance (ORM 3.11 p<0.001). During the flu period, the monthly mean of sick-leave days per employee was significantly lower among the vaccinated than the unvaccinated, respectively of 0.328 days/person vs 0.752 days/person (p = 0.022). Unvaccinated employees reported a higher average of sick-leave days during the flu period compared to the previous non-influenza period (0.752 days/month/person vs 0.337 days/month/person p <0.001). The monthly mean cost for sickness absences per employee was significantly higher for an unvaccinated subject compared to one vaccinated, respectively € 129.00 and € 54.00 (p = 0.028). The overall net saving estimated was € 314.00 per person vaccinated. Influenza vaccination proved to be an extraordinary preventive tool and a cost-effective intervention. However, influenza immunization seems to be unappealing among healthy adults and higher flu vaccination coverages could be achieved through educational interventions possibly addressing young employees who showed little interest in vaccination. Finally, among health promotion interventions, companies should point out the importance of flu vaccination both for the individual wellbeing and the company environment.

Realistic decision-making process with memory and adaptability in evolutionary vaccination game

Abstract Of particular importance for controlling infectious diseases by voluntary vaccination is how to understand individuals’ strategic vaccination behavior in social networks. Previous studies have always assumed an imitating and learning process by the Fermi’s rule, however, individuals’ stochastic behavior of whether to vaccinate is influenced by their intentions instead of simply imitating others. In this paper, a new strategy updating rule is proposed, demonstrating a more realistic vaccination decision-making process with memory effect and adaptability. Individuals determine whether vaccination is significant by comparing the vaccination cost and the average cost of their unvaccinated neighbors, and accordingly change their intentions to vaccinate in the next season, during which the memory effect and adaptability are taken into account. We find that the new updating rule has an extraordinary impact on the vaccination behavior of individuals, and, as a result, on the final epidemic size. It is especially noteworthy that, comparing with the traditional model, the vaccination coverage is improved and the infection size is reduced. Our results highlight that it is necessary to consider memory effect and adaptability in controlling the infectious spreading.

Roles of different update strategies in the vaccination behavior on two-layered networks

Epidemic spreading has been widely investigated over the past decades. And voluntary vaccination has been often utilized to explore dynamical process in epidemics where vaccines are available. In this letter, we establish a framework considering conformity motivated update as well as myopic best response motivated update on a family network which is demonstrated by a two-layered network. Extensive numerical simulations are conducted to study the dynamics of epidemic spreading under the aforementioned update rules, from which we discover the oscillation phenomenon under the pure myopic best response condition and the amplitude diversification phenomenon under the mixing of conformity and myopic best response motivated conditions. Moreover, we find that smaller overlapping fraction of links on two-layered network shall promote the epidemic propagation. The current findings can shed some lights on the evolution of epidemic spreading process in the real-world scenarios.

The impact of long-term moderate level of vaccination coverage for epidemiology of varicella in Lu'an, China: should we change immunisation strategy now?

As China implements the voluntary vaccination programme of one-dose of varicella vaccine (VarV) for decades, robust estimates of the impact of voluntary vaccination era on epidemiology of varicella are needed. We estimated the vaccination coverage (VC) of VarV by using surveillance data on immunisation. The descriptive epidemiological method was used to describe the changing epidemiology of varicella from 2007 to 2018. The screening method was used to estimate the vaccine effectiveness (VE) of VarV. The overall VC for VarV was 71.7%, ranged from 47.7% to 79.5% among 2008-2017 birth cohorts. In total, 16 660 varicella cases were reported during 2007-2018, the incidence increased from 10.0 cases per 100 000 population in 2007 to 65.2 cases per 100 000 population in 2018. A shift in age group of varicella was observed since 2012, with the age increased from 5-9 years to 10-14 years. The overall VE was 79.9%, and the VE increased from 60.1% in 2008 birth cohort to 96.2% in 2017 birth cohort. We found that the overall VE for VarV is moderate, but appears highly effective within 5 years after vaccination. In addition, a shift varicella infection to older ages has occurred at the long-term moderate level VC of one-dose VarV. Therefore, to contain the incidence of varicella and prevent any potential shift to older ages, the introduction of VarV into routine immunisation programme is likely needed in Lu'an.

Relationship between Echovirus Epidemics and Incidence of Aseptic Meningitis following Mumps Vaccination Based on Previous Japanese Reports: Possibility of Misclassification of Echovirus Infection in Previous Reports

In Japan, the vaccination for mumps has been on a voluntary basis since 1993 because of safety concerns arising from the high incidence of aseptic meningitis associated with Japanese mumps vaccine strains. However, recent reports on the voluntary mumps vaccination have described the decreased incidence of postvaccination aseptic meningitis for unknown reasons. To explore the underlying reason for this decrease, we analyzed the influence of echoviruses, the most common causative viruses for community-acquired aseptic meningitis, on the previously reported incidence of aseptic meningitis following mumps vaccination. We used available data on the yearly number of cases of echovirus detection from the Infectious Agents Surveillance Reports issued by the National Institute of Infectious Diseases as well as previously reported nationwide data on the incidence of postvaccination aseptic meningitis. The incidence of postvaccination aseptic meningitis tended to be higher during the period of an echovirus epidemic and lower during the period without such as epidemic. The present ecological trend analysis suggests the influence of echovirus epidemics on the previous reported incidence of aseptic meningitis following mumps vaccination. It is necessary to carry out a differential diagnosis of echovirus infection to identify the true causative viruses in aseptic meningitis following mumps vaccination.

From mandatory to voluntary vaccination: intention to vaccinate in the case of policy changes

ObjectivesThe aim of the study was to assess the association between sociodemographic characteristics and attitudes according to health belief model (HBM) attributes with the intention to vaccinate children in cases of non-mandatory vaccination to support informed decisions in planned revision of our vaccination policy. Study designThis is a cross-sectional study carried out on a random sample of 3,854 women with young children in Slovenia. MethodsThe participants’ attitudes were grouped within six HBM attributes (perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, barriers, clue to action and self-efficacy). Possible associations between the intention to vaccinate children in cases of non-mandatory vaccination and sociodemographic characteristics or attitudinal attributes according to HBM were explored in univariate analyses by calculating odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence interval (CI) estimates. ResultsJust more than half (56.2%; 95% CI: 53.8–58.5%) of the women reported on their intention to vaccinate their children in the case of non-mandatory vaccination, and 23.4% (95% CI: 21.4–25.5%) were undecided. There were no significant sociodemographic predictor variables in relation to this intention. Those who perceived higher susceptibility to vaccine-preventable diseases or the benefits of vaccination were more likely to intend to vaccinate in the case of non-mandatory vaccination (OR = 5.70; 95% CI: 4.64–7.00) and (OR = 7.62; 95% CI: 5.96–9.76). Perceived barriers to vaccinate (fear of side-effects or lack of comprehensive information from physicians) and parents not getting enough useful information in general as a clue to action were significant predictors of an intention not to vaccinate. ConclusionsOur results show that a mandatory vaccination policy is an important factor in ensuring high levels of vaccination coverage in Slovenia. In future, more comprehensive communication activities focused on vaccine-preventable diseases and the benefits and safety of vaccination (for the education of parents and their healthcare providers) are needed to diminish the reliance on a mandatory vaccination policy.

Farmers’ heterogeneous motives, voluntary vaccination and disease spread: an agent-based model

Abstract Animal health authorities responsible for effective voluntary livestock disease control need to consider the dynamic interplay between farmers’ collective behaviour and disease epidemiology. We present an agent-based model to simulate vaccination scheme designs that differ in expected adverse vaccine effects, communication strategies and subsidy levels. Specific scheme designs improve the vaccine uptake by farmers at the start of a livestock disease epidemic compared with a base scheme of minimal communication and subsidy. The results suggest that motivational mechanisms activated by a well-designed risk communication strategy are equally or more effective in increasing vaccination uptake than providing more financial compensation.