Key Evidence: It is estimated that in 41 Gavi-eligible countries, approximately 6.6 million households would suffer Catastrophic Health Costs (CHC) in the absence of pneumococcal vaccine coverage. Due to the current absence of a pneumococcal immunization plan in many of these countries, the number of CHC cases would only decrease slightly to 6.4 million with current immunization programs. If pneumococcal vaccine programs would be implemented or expanded with Gavi support, the number of households experiencing CHC would decrease to 4.6 million – a decrease of approximately 30%.
Similarly, the estimates of medical impoverishment without vaccine coverage in this model showed that pneumococcal disease would cause 800,000 households to fall under the poverty line.
Key Evidence: Vaccines that can protect against pneumonia – Hib and S. pneumoniae vaccines – can together prevent over 1.25 million cases of poverty over 15 years, found researchers modeling the economic impact of immunization in 41 low- and middle-income countries.