The February issue of Lancet magazine published data on an international economic analysis of the effectiveness of vaccination against pneumococcal disease in young children. This study has shown that vaccination with the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in developing countries is economically feasible, and this event will allow them to significantly reduce infant mortality.

Routine vaccination of children under 2 years of age against infections caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae requires significant investment from national governments and charitable organizations. To allocate these investments, the country leadership needs information on the estimated benefits of the implementation of this project, on the cost and profitability of the introduction of mass vaccination.

The aim of the study was to analyze the feasibility of vaccination against infections caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae in countries where financial support for vaccination is possible from the Global Alliance for vaccines and vaccination (GAVI).

According to a study in 72 countries in 2005, a decision analysis model was developed to compare vaccination against pneumococcal disease in children aged 6, 10 and 14 weeks without vaccination.

The analysis used published and unpublished data to calculate infant mortality, the effectiveness of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine use, and the frequency of vaccination.

In the developing countries studied, the pneumococcal vaccine was administered to the same population as the DTP vaccine. At the same time, 262,000 deaths of children aged 3 to 29 months per year (7%) were avoided, thus avoiding 8.34 million years of life, taking into account the loss of health (DALY * ) per year. If all children were vaccinated, it would be possible to prevent up to 407,000 child deaths per year.

Since a single dose of vaccine costs approximately $ 5, the total cost of the total vaccination is $ 838 million. By comparing the gross national product per capita with the years of work capacity provided by vaccination, it turned out that vaccination at such a price would be profitable in 68 of the 72 countries.

Thus, purchasing a pneumococcal vaccine at a price of $ 1 to $ 5 is a very cost-effective measure even for the poorest countries in the world, and this measure will allow these states to significantly reduce infant mortality.