Children with rotavirus experience longer hospital stays than children with non-rotavirus diarrhea. In a study looking at the direct and indirect costs of treating rotavirus in Malaysia, rotavirus hospitalizations cost families 26% of their average total monthly household income, which was significantly higher than the cost for non-rotavirus diarrhea hospitalizations.
Rotavirus
Immunization can prevent families from facing financial hardship due to expensive medical treatments
Costs for treatment for rotavirus at a large urban hospital in Malaysia led one third of families to experience catastrophic health expenditures (CHC). When direct and indirect costs of treating rotavirus were considered, almost 9 in 10 families spent more than 10% of their monthly household income on treating rotavirus. In addition, 6% of families were pushed into poverty after paying for treatment.
Immunization can prevent common illnesses that strain hospital resources
In a Bangladeshi study, pneumonia and acute diarrhea were the first and third most common reasons for childhood hospital admission with over half (54%) of the acute diarrhea admissions caused by rotavirus. One in four children taken to this large pediatric hospital were refused admission because all beds were occupied. Vaccination could have prevented children with rotavirus from requiring essential hospital resources when one in four children refused admission had symptoms of pneumonia.
Immunization helps protect low-income populations from financial burden and prevents diseases like measles and pneumonia
In a financial risk model analysis of 41 Gavi-eligible countries, the burden of Catastrophic Health Costs (CHC) and Medical Impoverishment (MI) would be greatest in the lowest income populations. With expanded vaccine coverage, the share of prevented cases of measles, pneumococcal disease, and rotavirus, in relation to the total number of cases prevented, would be larger in the lowest income populations thereby providing a larger financial risk protection (FRP) to these populations.
Vaccine coverage in Gavi-eligible countries associated with significant reductions in catastrophic health costs
In 41 Gavi-eligible countries, in the absence of vaccine coverage, the number of Catastrophic Health Costs (CHC) cases caused by measles would be 18.9 million, by severe pneumococcal disease would be 6.6 million and by severe rotavirus disease would be 2.2 million. Expanding vaccine coverage in these countries would reduce the number of cases of CHC due to measles by 90%, due to pneumococcal disease by 30% and due to rotavirus disease by 40%.
Immunization with rotavirus vaccine may also reduce severe gastroenteritis cases in unimmunized children through herd immunity
A meta-analysis of studies measuring the impact of rotavirus vaccine (RVV) on severe gastroenteritis morbidity and mortality, found a 22% herd immunity effect for severe rotavirus gastroenteritis in children less than one year of age in US and El Salvador. In Latin America, severe gastroenteritis due to any cause was reduced by 25%.
Immunization against rotavirus has led to significant decreases in hospital admissions and gastroenteritis cases
Several countries have seen a significant decrease in the number of rotavirus-related hospital admissions in rotavirus unvaccinated children ages 2-5 years who were not age eligible to receive the vaccine post introduction. The US had a 41-92% decrease, Australia had a 30-70% decrease, Belgium had a 20-64% decrease, Austria had a 35% reduction and El Salvador had a 41-81% decrease. In addition, there was a reduction in hospitalizations due to gastroenteritis of any cause by 17-51% in the US and 40% in Australia.
Rotavirus vaccination programs show significant short-term return on investments
In a UK cost-effectiveness analysis, which takes into account herd effect, the budget impact analysis demonstrated that the introduction of a rotavirus vaccine program could pay back between 58-96% of the cost outlay for the program within the first 4 years.
Vaccination programs, such as those for rotavirus, have shown short-term return on investment
In an economic evaluation of vaccination against rotavirus conducted in Italy, it was shown that as early as the second year after rotavirus vaccine introduction, the vaccine cost would be more than offset by savings from prevention of disease cases and hospitalizations.
Scaling up Rotavirus vaccine coverage heavily averted treatment costs
In a modeled analysis of the economic impact of vaccine use in the world’s 72 poorest countries, for countries included in the analyses from the African region, scaling up coverage of the Rotavirus (RVV) vaccine to 90% was projected to result in more than US$900 million in treatment costs averted.