Immunization Saves Billions of Dollars Finds Johns Hopkins Researchers

Immunization programs offered in low- and middle-income countries provide a high “return on investment” in terms of the economic costs of diseases that are prevented and the values of lives that would have been lost, reports researchers.

The researchers analyzed recent data on immunization programs aimed at preventing 10 infectious diseases in 94 low- and middle-income countries. By estimating the economic cost of illnesses and broader losses due to disability and premature death that would occur without the programs, and comparing those costs to the costs of the programs themselves, the researchers estimate that the costs averted by implementing these immunization programs will amount to $681.9 billion for 2011-20 and $828.5 billion for the next decade. This estimated net benefit is about 26 times the immunization programs’ costs during 2011-20, and about 20 times their costs for the next ten years, 2021-30.

The researchers bundled the estimates for the 10 pathogens together but noted that measles virus was the largest driver of estimated disease-related costs.

Read original article here- https://www.jhsph.edu/news/news-releases/2020/immunization-programs-yield%20high-return%20on%20investment-saving-hundreds-of-billions-of-dollars.html