Vaccines are one of the most successful and cost-effective health investments in history
Vaccination currently saves between 2 and 3 million lives every year.1 Vaccines as public health tools – eradicating smallpox, containing polio to just three endemic countries and greatly reducing many other diseases – have an indisputable track record.
The impact of vaccines goes far beyond saving lives and improving health. Vaccination is in every sense an investment, with wider benefits that accrue across a lifetime.
A strand of recent research has focused on both short- and long-term, direct and indirect benefits of immunisation – classifying them into “narrow” and “broad” categories.2
The narrow benefits of immunisation are limited to preventing healthcare costs and loss of productivity for the patient and the person caring for him or her.
The recent move towards a broader approach to the benefits of vaccination shows that many other aspects of society and the economy are positively affected by immunisation. For instance, by preventing illness, immunisation improves a child's cognitive skills, physical strength and performance at school. In the long term, this leads to increased productivity.
By improving financial security and reducing risk, preventing illness through vaccination may lead to increased investment and improved political and economic stability. Through an effect known as herd immunity, it also helps to protect unvaccinated individuals in the community.2,3,4
Tried and tested
From Jenner and Pasteur to modern-day medicine, immunisation has an impressive track record.
Go to page
From Jenner and Pasteur to modern-day medicine, immunisation has an impressive track record.
Go to pageAdded value
Vaccines help healthy people stay healthy, removing a major obstacle to development.
Go to page
Vaccines help healthy people stay healthy, removing a major obstacle to development.
Go to pageCost-effective
Immunising children is one of the “best buys” in public health.
Go to page
Immunising children is one of the “best buys” in public health.
Go to pageHealth equity
Equal access to vaccines is a pre-requisite for social and economic development.
Go to page
Equal access to vaccines is a pre-requisite for social and economic development.
Go to page1 World Health Organisation. Global Immunisation Factsheet. 2016 Sept: available at http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs378/en/. Retrieved 2016 Sept
2 Bärnighausen T, Bloom D.E, Cafiero-Fonseca E.T, O’Brien J. Valuing Vaccination. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014 Aug;111(34):12313-19
3 Jit M, Hutubessy R, Png M.E, Sundaram N, Audimulam J et al. The broader economic impact of vaccination: reviewing an appraising the strength of evidence. BMC Medicine. 2015 Sep;13(1):1
4 Bärnighausen T, Bloom D.E, Canning D, O’Brien J. Accounting for the full benefits of childhood vaccination in South Africa. PGDA Working Paper. 2008 Aug; 39:1.
Latest news
Janet, mother of twins, tells fellow mothers.
Most vaccines are given to healthy people to prevent infection with a disease-causing organism, but sometimes vaccines are used to fight an existing infection or illness. Such ‘therapeutic’ vaccines are being developed for numerous illnesses,…
Scientists around the world are working faster than ever to find vaccines that could stop the spread of COVID-19. Now, nearly a year on from the start of the pandemic, we have several promising vaccines on the brink of going through regulatory…
As companies race to develop COVID-19 vaccines, some development processes have been run in parallel to stop the pandemic as quickly as possible. Yet safety remains paramount; now that we are on the brink of rolling out some of the vaccines that…
Scientists have been racing to develop COVID-19 vaccines that could reach millions, yet many of the studies have surprisingly small sample sizes drawn from the clinical trials. Does that matter?
Fluvoxamine has shown positive results in early trials.
The COVID-19 pandemic now threatens global progress on preventing and treating childhood pneumonia, potentially reversing decades of health gains for the world’s most vulnerable children.
Last updated: 15 Sep 2020