A study published in PLOS ONE compares the long-term health and economic impacts of introducing a gender-neutral 9-valent HPV (9vHPV) vaccination program versus maintaining a female-only strategy in Taiwan. Using a dynamic transmission model over a 100-year horizon with assumed coverage (85% for girls, 50% for boys), the authors estimate that gender-neutral vaccination would avert thousands more cases of HPV-related disease—e.g. reductions in genital warts, head and neck cancers, and recurrent respiratory papillomatosis among males—and prevent additional deaths in both sexes.
Economically, the gender-neutral strategy is predicted to produce healthcare cost savings (NTD 1,574,288,155 over 100 years) compared to female-only vaccination, and yields an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of NTD 606,210 per quality-adjusted life year (QALY)—below Taiwan’s willingness-to-pay threshold. Sensitivity analyses suggest the results are robust across varying male coverage rates, vaccine pricing, and discounting assumptions. These findings lend strong support for extending HPV vaccination to boys in Taiwan (and similar settings), reinforcing that broader vaccination strategies can generate both health gains and favorable economic returns.
Thumbnail image credit: Shutterstock / Meeh
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