Vaccines
The potential demand for an HIV/AIDS vaccine in Brazil
Cost and impact of HIV/AIDS in Brazil: cost of treatment versus economic burden of illness
Authors:
H.M.D. Novaes; E.J.A. Luna; M. Goldbaum; S. Kilsztajn; A. Rossbach; J. de la Rocha Carvalheiro
Publisher:
World Bank, 2002
This study assesses the potential demand by the public sector for a preventive HIV/AIDS vaccine in Brazil and the costs of alternative strategies for a vaccination program.
The study reviews the cost and impact of HIV/AIDS in Brazil, in terms of disease and economic burden, as a proxy for the benefits of an HIV/AIDS vaccine. The epidemiology of AIDS and Brazil’s experience with immunisation coverage with other vaccines are used to assess the number of vaccines, delivery strategies, and possible costs of an HIV/AIDS immunisation program in Brazil, assuming the availability of a 100 percent effective AIDS vaccine that lasts a lifetime under different pricing and dosing assumptions.
Findings: low-cost, highly effective vaccine would likely be affordable to an upper-middle-income country like Brazil and yield large benefits from a policy of universal, publicly subsidised immunisation. But if prices are higher and the impact less favourable, the costs and effects would have to be compared with other AIDS prevention programs or other health interventions. Both political and economic considerations will likely figure into public policy on HIV/AIDS vaccination, when such a vaccine is developed.
