Future epidemiological and economic impacts of universal influenza vaccines
Date
2019Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of AmericaPublisher
National Academy of SciencesType
Article
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The efficacy of influenza vaccines, currently at 44%, is limited by the rapid antigenic evolution of the virus and a manufacturing process that can lead to vaccine mismatch. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) recently identified the development of a universal influenza vaccine with an efficacy of at least 75% as a high scientific priority. The US Congress approved $130 million funding for the 2019 fiscal year to support the development of a universal vaccine, and another $1 billion over 5 y has been proposed in the Flu Vaccine Act. Using a model of influenza transmission, we evaluated the population-level impacts of universal influenza vaccines distributed according to empirical age-specific coverage at multiple scales in the United States. We estimate that replacing just 10% of typical seasonal vaccines with 75% efficacious universal vaccines would avert ∼5.3 million cases, 81,000 hospitalizations, and 6,300 influenza-related deaths per year. This would prevent over $1.1 billion in direct health care costs compared to a typical season, based on average data from the 2010–11 to 2018–19 seasons. A complete replacement of seasonal vaccines with universal vaccines is projected to prevent 17 million cases, 251,000 hospitalizations, 19,500 deaths, and $3.5 billion in direct health care costs. States with high per-hospitalization medical expenses along with a large proportion of elderly residents are expected to receive the maximum economic benefit. Replacing even a fraction of seasonal vaccines with universal vaccines justifies the substantial cost of vaccine development.Sponsors
This work was supported by funding from NIH (Grant U01 GM087719), the Burnett and Stender Families endowment, and the Notsew Orm Sands Foundation.Identifier to cite or link to this item
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85073072752&doi=10.1073%2fpnas.1909613116&partnerID=40&md5=5c19e30c2aa848ff98130ce5fd78a691; http://hdl.handle.net/10713/11170ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1073/pnas.1909613116
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