The Cost-Effective Analysis of a Rotavirus Immunization Program for the United States

Since the 1970s, cost benefit analyses have been performed on the use, subsidization, and compulsory action of vaccines (Willems 1982, 978). These vaccine cost-benefit analyses follow the same general format. The objectives are defined, the possible alternatives including the costs and benefits are determined, the effects of discounting future effects are derived, the uncertainties in key variables are discussed, the key ethical issues are addressed, and general conclusions

People are dying every second to a variety of reasons, some that could be prevented others where that is not the case. However, experts agree that influenza and influenza related deaths could be significantly prevented if people took the influenza vaccine annually. The influenza virus is a deadly virus that has been killing people since the 1900s; in 1918 the first recorded epidemic of a strain of influenza known as the Spanish flu killed approximately 50 million people ("Pandemic Flu History"). Because people did not know what the virus was or how to fight against it, it spread very fast. However, after the vaccine was made, later epidemics such as the 1957, 1968, and 2009 epidemics were not as fatal, killing approximately one million people worldwide. Vaccines played a large role in human history in fighting and preventing diseases from annihilating human beings. This paper will discuss the economic aspects of whether it should be mandatory for hospital health care workers to take the flu vaccine.

In the past 20 years, vaccines that are distributed to infants and young children will prevent 322 million illnesses, 21 million hospitalizations, and 732,000 deaths throughout their lifetime (Olson, Samantha). However, even with all of these amazing statistics, people still are not convinced that vaccinating their child is the right decision. The CDC recommends fourteen vaccines to infants, some of which are to prevent diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, rotavirus, the chicken pox, and whooping cough (Child VaxView). Diphtheria and tetanus are very uncommon, but pertussis is still a threat and has a 1% mortality rate in early infancy (Summary). Even though a 1% chance of a child catching a disease and dying from it sounds like a very slim chance and pretty good odds, there is always going to be that question of what if this child is going to be that one percent? This people would assume would lead the parents of a newborn to vaccinate their child, however, with all of the false information floating around, it can be difficult to determine what is best for the new child. Another vaccination recommended by the CDC was the rotavirus vaccine. Four out of five children in the United States will acquire the rotavirus by the age of five. Among these

Wynia, in his journal from the American Medical Association presented interesting statistical data about the benefits of childhood vaccinations. In this article he points out three years before initiating mandatory childhood vaccinations the number of reported death cases for Small Pox was 48,164, Diphtheria 175,885 and Measles 503,282. After starting the vaccination process the reported death cases for Small Pox was zero, Diphtheria was four and Measles was eighty one.

With a development of media and technological ways of social communication, is it vital to trust information from the reliable sources. Many people who do not trust or not satisfied with the quality of medicine, and usually quest the material from unreliable sources. Therefore, matter of reliability of immunization is still a huge topic for debate. For example, people sometimes rely on anecdotes, rare cases or even opinions that they have heard from others. The following article presents different point of view of the opponents, and emphasizes the evidences that support benefits of immunization.

Vaccination has revolutionized medicine. It is one of the most significant health development of the 20th century. Vaccination can save lives, protect future generations, and provide economic benefits for society. The American Academy of Pediatrics says “most childhood vaccines are 90% to 99% effective in preronting disease. According to shot@life vaccines save 2.5 million children from preventable diseases every year. UNICEF estimates that $6.2 billion could be saved in treatment costs if vaccines were more prominent in the world’s poorest countries. The CDC estimates that children vaccinated between 1994 and 2014 have yielded net savings of $1.38 trillion in “societal costs.” Vaccinated mothers protect their unborn children from viruses that

A cost saving measure developed by the authors in regards to association with vaccinations was the cost of hospitalization for all acute and chronic respiratory conditions and congestive heart failure. I believe on that was left out would have been useful for the researchers was to measure the cost of living for the aging and see if perhaps that had any variance between those who live in high cost areas where the person of interest has little money compared to those who live in low cost areas who have money to spend on healthcare prevention.

It is difficult to determine the duration of immunity resulting from rotavirus infection and the role of recurrent exposure in preserving the protection of older children and adults against symptomatic infections. The fact that older children and adults are partially susceptible to symptomatic infections is evidence that immunity is neither absolute nor lifelong. Consecutive outbreaks or rotavirus stations among infants of infants, recurrent symptomatic infection with homotypic and heterotypic strains is common, 56 suggesting that the protection resulting from a natural infection is at least against non-serious, relatively short-lived diseases.

Vaccines are the most important health practice in combating and preventing deadly diseases. Vaccinations are considered the most cost-effective method in preventing infectious diseases. Vaccines are undervalued and under-utilized, which continues to allow preventable diseases to threaten the world. To better explain the importance of vaccines, this paper reviews scholarly journals, articles, professional research and clinical evidence, that proves vaccination are cost-effective and vital to human health.

Despite the fact, that some people believe that vaccination is bad, majority of the population still getting vaccinated yearly. One of the diseases children might experience is rotavirus which is major cause of severe acute gastroenteritis or AGE. Previously it infected nearly every child in United States by age of 5 years old until “routine rotavirus vaccination on United States infants began in 2006” (245). There were two studies conducted that proved that vaccination protects children from certain diseases. (name of the study) provided many rated based on their study and it showed that “rotavirus vaccination had dramatically decreased rates of hospitalization for rotavirus infection among children in United States countries” (245). The study demonstrated a burden of severe

This journal article reports about rotavirus vaccination in terms of kinds of it and its performances. There are many types of childhood disease. One of them is rotavirus. The reason why children suffer from this disease rather than adults is that they have weaker immune systems. Rotavirus is transmitted through various ways such as unclean hands or impure water. Before rotavirus vaccination, many infants used to die from this. However, this is one of the most common causes of preventable childhood disease these days so it is important to know this vaccine.

Safety and effectiveness of vaccination are greater than therapeutic treatment. Efficacy rate for vaccination reaches 90% to 100% based on the research data (Carrillo-Marquez & White, 2013). The hypothesis for this research proposal is that delay or refusal of vaccination causes in recurrence of eliminated infectious disease and increase the risk of higher prevalence of infectious disease outbreaks in children and public.

There are a number of developing countries managing to eliminate preventable infectious diseases (McDonald, Halperin, Chaple, Scott and Kirk 2006). Cuba is a small and poor country that has been able to achieve remarkable success over the years in their health sector. The country immunisation program has been a success compared to the developed countries. The country has lower infant mortality rates than United States, which uses a large budget on health. This is an experience that has showed that use of a lot of money in health care does not always translate to better health. USA has been experiencing high rates of objections to vaccination compared to Cuba. McDonald et al. (2006), asserts that over 95% of the Cuban children have been immunised against 13 preventable diseases which are a significant rate than in most developed countries. There has been a disappearance of measles, rubella and mumps due to the country comprehensive immunisation program. The elimination of the three diseases has been a remarkable feat for Cuba as it has limited resources. According to McDonald et al. (2006), the country won the Gates Award for Global health in 2001 due to their National Immunisation Program. On the whole, vaccination has been a great success in Cuba.

According to the research of the American Academy of Pediatrics in their official Pediatric journal, one term defines a whole field of the relationship exchange between the child and his or her pediatrician. A “medical home” was once used to conclude all the medical information about a patient, but nowadays can be delineated a“ partnership approach with families to provide primary health care that is assessable, family centered, coordinated, comprehensive, continuous, compassionate, and culturally effective period” (Sia, et al.). With increasing healthcare cost, technology, survivorship, foundations, and specializations, this causes an abundant amount of attention focused

The “Cost-effectiveness Analysis of a Rotavirus Immunization Program for the United States” was designed to estimate the economic impact of a national rotavirus immunization program. The research question and objective of the analysis was to determine if a rotavirus vaccine immunization program would be beneficial and cost effective. The study is policy relevant because it will determine if a rotavirus vaccine immunization program is effective enough for implementation and will assist in setting priorities for policy makers. The conclusions of the analysis will affect healthcare providers, doctors, hospitals, the vaccine users, and society as a whole.