MODELING THE POTENTIAL PUBLIC HEALTH IMPACT AND COST-EFFECTIVENESS OF COVID-19 VACCINATION IN ARGENTINA
Author(s)
Carlos Fernando Mendoza, PhD1, Ben Yarnoff, PhD2, Alexandra Taylor, MS3, Carolina Carballo, MS4.
1Pfizer, Mexico City, Mexico, 2Thermo Fisher Scientific, Siler City, NC, USA, 3Thermo Fisher Scientific, Milan, Italy, 4Pfizer, Buenas Aires, Argentina.
1Pfizer, Mexico City, Mexico, 2Thermo Fisher Scientific, Siler City, NC, USA, 3Thermo Fisher Scientific, Milan, Italy, 4Pfizer, Buenas Aires, Argentina.
OBJECTIVES: This study assessed the public health impact and cost-effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination in Argentina.
METHODS: A combined Markov and decision tree model was used to estimate the economic and public health impact of vaccination strategies targeting various age groups in Argentina over a one-year time horizon. Age-stratified annual rates of infection, hospitalization, and death, and vaccine coverage rates were informed by local surveillance data from 2024. Other age-stratified clinical, cost, and vaccine effectiveness parameters were informed by published literature.
RESULTS: In the base case, a vaccination strategy targeting individuals aged ≥65 years and the high-risk population aged 18-64 years was estimated to avert 48,280 symptomatic cases, 196 hospitalizations, 8 deaths, and 3,080 lost quality-adjusted life years (QALYs). Direct medical costs increased by $59.7 million and total societal costs increased by $41.5 million. Evaluated at 1x GDP per capita ($13,969), vaccination was cost-effective from the societal perspective ($13,492/QALY). Increasing vaccine uptake in the eligible population was estimated to substantially increase the public health impact of vaccination.
CONCLUSIONS: A vaccination strategy targeting individuals aged ≥65 years and those aged 18-64 years at high risk yields substantial public health and economic gains annually and is cost-effective from the societal perspective. Increasing vaccine coverage in the eligible population could be an important public health strategy.
METHODS: A combined Markov and decision tree model was used to estimate the economic and public health impact of vaccination strategies targeting various age groups in Argentina over a one-year time horizon. Age-stratified annual rates of infection, hospitalization, and death, and vaccine coverage rates were informed by local surveillance data from 2024. Other age-stratified clinical, cost, and vaccine effectiveness parameters were informed by published literature.
RESULTS: In the base case, a vaccination strategy targeting individuals aged ≥65 years and the high-risk population aged 18-64 years was estimated to avert 48,280 symptomatic cases, 196 hospitalizations, 8 deaths, and 3,080 lost quality-adjusted life years (QALYs). Direct medical costs increased by $59.7 million and total societal costs increased by $41.5 million. Evaluated at 1x GDP per capita ($13,969), vaccination was cost-effective from the societal perspective ($13,492/QALY). Increasing vaccine uptake in the eligible population was estimated to substantially increase the public health impact of vaccination.
CONCLUSIONS: A vaccination strategy targeting individuals aged ≥65 years and those aged 18-64 years at high risk yields substantial public health and economic gains annually and is cost-effective from the societal perspective. Increasing vaccine coverage in the eligible population could be an important public health strategy.
Conference/Value in Health Info
2026-11, ISPOR Europe 2026, Vienna, Austria
Value in Health, Volume 29, Issue 12S
Code
EE134
Topic
Economic Evaluation
Disease
Vaccines