Vaccines
The strategic use and potential demand for an HIV vaccine in Southern Africa
Prioritising vaccine administration in Southern Africa
Authors:
C. Desmond; R. Greener
Publisher:
World Bank, 2003
This paper investigates the issues around the targeting of an eventual HIV vaccine.
The authors identify potential target groups for a vaccine, and estimate how many individuals would be in need of vaccination. They develop a method for estimating how many cases of HIV infection are likely to be avoided for each vaccinated individual. The authors distinguish between the HIV cases averted per vaccination and the cases averted per 100 recruits into a vaccination program. The cases averted per 100 recruits is used to develop a priority ranking of the identified population groups for vaccination. The authors discuss the issue of ease of access to those groups and how the differential costs would affect the vaccination strategy.
Finding: an expensive vaccine should be administered to commercial sex workers first, while an inexpensive vaccine would be better administered first to general population groups, in particular, schoolchildren.
The paper concludes with a discussion of current levels of public and private expenditure on HIV prevention and treatment, and the implications for an assessment of the willingness to pay for an eventual HIV vaccine.
