Impact and cost-effectiveness of national implementation of rotavirus vaccination in Vietnam: A modeling study

This peer-reviewed modeling study, published in Vaccine, assesses the health impact and cost-effectiveness of nationwide rotavirus vaccination using ROTAVIN, a vaccine produced domestically in Vietnam.

The authors used the UNIVAC decision-support model to compare vaccination with no vaccination over a 10-year period, projecting rotavirus gastroenteritis cases, healthcare visits, hospitalizations, deaths, and associated costs among children under five. The analysis draws on local epidemiological, vaccine effectiveness, and healthcare cost data and assesses cost-effectiveness from both governmental and societal perspectives.

Key findings

• Reduced disease burden: Over 10 years, vaccination could avert 1.9 million rotavirus gastroenteritis cases, 1.05 million healthcare visits, 97,776 hospital admissions, and 433 deaths among children under five—a reduction of approximately 42% in disease burden.
• Program costs: Nationwide vaccination was estimated to cost US$39.5 million over 10 years, or approximately US$3.9 million annually.
• Healthcare savings: The program could save the government US$24.5 million in healthcare costs, offsetting at least 62% of vaccination program costs.
• Cost-effectiveness: Vaccination was estimated to cost US$982 per DALY averted from the governmental perspective and was cost-saving from the societal perspective in the base case.
• Robustness of findings: At a willingness-to-pay threshold of 0.5 times GDP per capita, vaccination had a 99% probability of being cost-effective from the governmental perspective and 100% from the societal perspective. These probabilities fell to 49% and 95%, respectively, at a lower threshold of 0.19 times GDP per capita.

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