PROVAC

ProVac Initiative

PAHO’s ProVac is an initiative originally launched in 2004 and relaunched in 2022, to provide technical cooperation for the promotion of evidence-based decision-making prior the introduction of new vaccines. ProVac currently focuses on pneumococcal, rotavirus, human papillomavirus (HPV), and influenza vaccines. In the near future, ProVac plans to include other priority vaccines in its toolkit for decision-making support at country level.

You can access the ProVac resources below and a document library here.

Tools

UNIVAC tool

UNIVAC is a single universal vaccine impact and cost-effectiveness decision support model with a standardized, accessible Excel-based interface and a familiar set of input steps and outputs. Input estimates of age-specific disease burden, age/dose-specific vaccine coverage, and effectiveness allow for a simple evaluation of direct vaccination impact on health outcomes.

COSTVAC tool

COSTVAC is an Excel-based toolkit that provides structured guidance on how to estimate the cost of routine immunization from a sample of health facilities and administrative levels of the health system. This toolkit provides guidance on sampling, survey instrument development and administration, and calculations.

Training modules

  • Module 1. Introduction to the ProVac Initiative

  • Module 2. Introduction to evidence-based decision-making on immunization

  • Module 3. Introduction to vaccine economics

    • Introduction to vaccine economics: University of Hong Kong

    • JSPH open courseware (Teaching Vaccine Economics Everywhere)

    • Estimating cost of illness from primary data collection – Decade of Vaccine Economics (DOVE) learning modules

  • Module 4. Immunization program costing

    • Common approach for the costing and financing analyses of routine immunization and new vaccine introduction costs

    • JSPH open courseware (Teaching Vaccine Economics Everywhere)

    • WHO Economics of immunization: a guide to the literature and other resources

  • Module 5. UNIVAC – A universal model for vaccines cost-effectiveness analyses

    • DALYs explained

    • Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards – CHEERS Checklist

    • Cost-Effectiveness Article Checklist – ProVAC CEA Article Checklist

  • Module 6. COSTVAC – Support for immunization program costing

    • Overview of COSTVAC  Download Tools Page

    • Installation Instructions

    • Orientation on Data Collection Interface

    • Practice Data Collection Interface

    • Aggregation of Collected Data

    • Making results tables from COSTVAC

  • Module 7. Communicating the evidence to key stakeholders