Cost-effectiveness of Prophylactic Zika Virus Vaccine in the Americas

• Main Authors: Affan Shoukat, Thomas Vilches, Seyed M. Moghadas
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2019-12-01
• Series: Emerging Infectious Diseases
• Subjects: Zika virus; microcephaly; vaccination; agent-based simulations; cost-effectiveness; America
• Online Access: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/25/12/18-1324_article

Zika virus remains a major public health concern because of its association with microcephaly and other neurologic disorders in newborns. A prophylactic vaccine has the potential to reduce disease incidence and eliminate birth defects resulting from prenatal Zika virus infection in future outbreaks. We evaluated the cost-effectiveness of a Zika vaccine candidate, assuming a protection efficacy of 60%–90%, for 18 countries in the Americas affected by the 2015–2017 Zika virus outbreaks. Encapsulating the demographics of these countries in an agent-based model, our results show that vaccinating women of reproductive age would be very cost-effective for sufficiently low (<$16) vaccination costs per recipient, depending on the country-specific Zika attack rate. In all countries studied, the median reduction of microcephaly was >75% with vaccination. These findings indicate that targeted vaccination of women of reproductive age is a noteworthy preventive measure for mitigating the effects of Zika virus infection in future outbreaks.