Abstract
Vaccination is most often studied from a scientific, clinical, or epidemiological perspective, and rightly so, for vaccines are meant to improve health outcomes. But these are not the only lenses through which the effects of vaccination programs can be understood. This chapter provides an economic perspective on vaccination programs, detailing in particular a new line of inquiry that makes a case for the importance of vaccination to achieving national economic aims. Research has shown that national spending on childhood vaccination programs does more than just reduce morbidity and mortality in a country: it also promotes national economic growth and poverty reduction. The chapter begins with a look at recent research that demonstrates powerful links that run from population health to economic well-being. Second, it discusses how knowledge of the economic benefits of health fundamentally transforms how we understand the value of vaccination. And third, it provides evidence for the scale of the returns that countries receive when they invest in immunization programs – returns that have not been fully captured by traditional economic analyses.
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References
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An early exposition of the arguments given here is Bloom DE, Canning D. The health and wealth of nations. Science. 2000;287:1207–9. A detailed account of the methodology and conclusions of some of this research appears in Bloom DE, Canning D. Global demographic change: dimensions and economic significance. Popul Dev Rev. 2008;34(S):17–51.
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These points are discussed in Bloom DE, Canning D, Jamison D. Health, wealth, and welfare. Finance Dev. 2004;41(1):10–15. (Translated into Spanish, French, Chinese, Russian, and Arabic. Reprinted in Giorgio S, editor. The Development Economics Reader. London: Routledge; 2008. p. 248–57.)
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For an example of taking this broader view, see Bloom DE., Bärnighausen T, Canning D, O’Brien J. Accounting for the full benefits of childhood vaccination in South Africa. S Afr Med J. 2008;98(11):42–46.
Bloom DE, Canning D, Weston M. The value of vaccination. World Econ. July–Sep 2005;6(3):15–39. (Reprinted in Stevens P, editor. Fighting the diseases of poverty. London: International Policy Press; 2007. p. 214–38).
Acknowledgments
This chapter was presented at a course on “Hot Topics in Infection and Immunity in Children 2009” conducted at Oxford University, June 28–July 1, 2009. I am grateful to Jennifer O’Brien and also to Elizabeth Cafiero, Poting Cheung, Marija Ozolins, and Larry Rosenberg for the research and editorial assistance they provided in the preparation of this chapter.
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Bloom, D.E. (2011). The Value of Vaccination. In: Curtis, N., Finn, A., Pollard, A. (eds) Hot Topics in Infection and Immunity in Children VII. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 697. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7185-2_1
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