The cost effectiveness of varicella vaccination program : a systemic review

Abstract

Background Chickenpox is a common infectious disease among children. Ever since a live attenuated vaccine was developed in 1970s, different countries have adopted different vaccination program against chickenpox. Hong Kong recently has commenced a routine childhood varicella vaccination program. The objective of this study is to evaluate whether routine childhood varicella vaccination is cost effective and the implications to Hong Kong.

Methodology Literature search was done on electronic databases: Medline and Embase for articles relevant to the topic. A total of 9 articles were retrieved for this systemic review. All 9 studies focus on the cost effectiveness of childhood varicella vaccination with comparison to no vaccination or other interventions.

Findings Routine childhood varicella vaccination program is cost effective especially from the societal perspective. The longer the vaccination program takes place, the more cost effective it would be. The cost effectiveness ratio is most sensitive to the coverage rate and the vaccine price.

Conclusion It remains unclear whether the routine childhood varicella vaccination program in Hong Kong would be cost effective or not. As the Hong Kong program has adopted the most recent recommendations towards varicella vaccines that the review articles were not included.