Health economic evaluation provides crucial evidence for decision making in the introduction of vaccines into national immunization programmes. When the WHO guide for standardization of economic evaluations of immunization programmes was first published in 2008, there were 45 prequalified vaccines. In 2019, the number of prequalified vaccines has been increased to 147.
The growing number of vaccine options increases the demand for economic evaluation of immunization programmes. In addition to the changes in vaccine options, there are also methodological developments in the vaccines and economics world.
As such, WHO has recently published a new edition of the guidance to meet the increased need to carry out immunization economic evaluations for decision making using the latest methodologies.
This updated guide brings together the recommendations and guidance from many recent guidelines, tools and other documents on specific aspects of immunization and on specific vaccines.
The primary target audience for this guide consists of researchers who conduct economic evaluations of immunization programmes at the local, national, regional and global levels. The secondary target audience is individuals who use cost-effectiveness information to assist policymakers at all levels for funding decisions relating to immunization programmes.
Immunization programme staff at the national level will be able to use this guide to assess the appropriateness, transparency and comparability of economic evaluations that have been conducted for their own country, or for other countries in their region.
As we approach the end of the Decade of Vaccines Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP 2011-2020), a new global strategy for immunization is being developed for the entire health and development community. This new guide will help the immunization community in better understanding the economic evaluations of immunization programmes in delivering economic benefits to communities around the world.
Any organization or individual working in the field of immunization economics can submit findings, opportunities, calls to action, or other relevant work below to be shared with our community.