Vaccines for Adults Pay Off in Both Lives and Money

04/23/24 • 13 min

Vaccines save lives. There’s no doubt about this: childhood vaccination saves four million lives every year, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. Children worldwide get a long list of vaccines, but what about adults?

A study by the Office of Health Economics (OHE), an independent research organization, took a look at the cost-effectiveness of four commonly given adult vaccines: the influenza vaccine, pneumococcal vaccines that protect against a batch of respiratory infections, the herpes zoster vaccine that protects against shingles, and the RSV vaccine that prevents respiratory syncytial virus.

To get a good idea of the value across different types of economies and cultures, they looked at 10 countries: Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Poland, South Africa, Thailand, and the United States. On average, the report found, these 4 adult vaccines gave a 19-fold return, meaning that the benefits equaled 19 times the costs of vaccination. On average, it worked out to US$4,637 per person vaccinated.

Some of the savings are direct – people didn’t rack up hospital costs or miss work if they were vaccinated and evaded serious illness. Some savings were indirect. For instance, “receiving the influenza vaccine reduces the risk of having a stroke and subsequent hospitalization in older adults by 16 percent,” the report reads. “Cancer patients vaccinated with the influenza vaccine also had statistically significantly better survival outcomes, including longer progression-free survival rates and overall survival compared to unvaccinated patients.”

One study cited in the report found that Italian adults vaccinated against flu were 13 percent less likely to die of any cause – not just flu, but any cause – over the 2018-2019 winter flu season than unvaccinated adults.

In this episode of One World, One Health, Dr. Lotte Steuten, Deputy CEO of OHE and co-author of the report, chats about how her team came up with their findings.

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In this episode of One World, One Health, Dr. Lotte Steuten, Deputy CEO of OHE and co-author of the report, chats about how her team came up with their findings.

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What's Surprising and Scary About Avian Influenza Right Now?

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Bird flu – aka avian influenza – is doing what it does best yet again – surprising scientists, public health officials, farmers, and wildlife experts. It’s been spreading among dairy cattle in the United States, something that startles even long-term observers of the virus.

The H5N1 strain of avian influenza was first noticed in the late 1990s and it immediately worried experts, who saw its potential to cause a pandemic. It infects many wild birds without causing them too much trouble, but they can spread it to domestic poultry, which often die en masse. It has occasionally spread to people – just under 900 since 2003 – according to the World Health Organization. But it’s deadly when it does, killing half of these people.

It's a perfect One Health issue – a disease that circulates among animals, spreads from one species to another, and then makes the jump to people. Farming practices, climate change, and the environment all play a role. Now it’s shown up in Antarctica, and at least one person on a dairy farm has been infected.

That surprised Dr. Richard Webby, Director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza in Animals and Birds at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. He says H5N1, like so many flu viruses, is constantly changing and evolving. That’s why it’s so important to keep an eye on it. “If there is one virus I don’t want to catch, this is it,” he says.

Listen as Dr. Webby tells One World, One Health about what experts are working to find out about H5N1’s latest moves.

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Never Again: Making Sure Patients Get the Air They Need

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The second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic was especially bad in India. Patients filled hospitals as the Delta variant swept the country in April of 2021. As many as 2,000 people died every day.

Many died literally gasping for air. Although India is a major producer of medical oxygen, supplies ran out amid the unprecedented demand. And while some areas of the vast country had access to medical oxygen, there was no good system for transferring them to places with more need.

It was a horrifying disaster as people who might otherwise have survived succumbed to COVID-19 or other conditions for lack of medical oxygen.

India wasn't the only country with this type of crisis. Oxygen became a black market item in Peru, Supplies were rationed in the UK and patients lined up to fill empty oxygen cylinders in countries around the world, including Brazil, Somalia, and Indonesia.

It should never happen again, says Varun Manhas, Associate Director of Public Health Programs for the One Health Trust. Varun is working to build a national oxygen grid for India and then share the blueprints with the world.

The National Medical Oxygen Grid isn't what would come to mind for many. It's a cellphone-based app to help hospitals and health officials keep track of where medical oxygen is needed and where supplies are plentiful. The app could be used to make sure no one runs out of oxygen in future crises.

You can hear more about the Global need for medical oxygen in this earlier episode of One World, One Health.