Economic Evaluations of Dengue Vaccination in the Southeast Asia Region: Evidence From a Systematic Review

Abstract

Objectives: To review the literature on the cost-effectiveness of dengue vaccination in Southeast Asian countries and possibly to provide recommendations on promoting dengue vaccination in this region.

Methods: A systematic search was conducted to identify relevant articles in 3 major databases (ProQuest, American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, and PubMed). Complete economic evaluation studies, including willingness-to-pay (WTP) studies, that were conducted in any Southeast Asian country were included in this study. Systematic review, non-full-text, and non-English studies were specifically excluded.

Results: Nine selected studies highlighted the economic evaluation of dengue vaccination in Southeast Asian countries by considering many parameters (eg, vaccine cost, vaccine efficacy, cost-effectiveness threshold, economic assessment, public acceptance, and WTP). All studies confirmed that dengue vaccine can be used as a prevention strategy to reduce the incidence rate of dengue cases by providing a variance of high cost-effectiveness values. In addition, communities provided a good assessment, acceptance, and WTP value for the vaccine.

Conclusions: The use of dengue vaccine could reduce the burden of disease and economic burden due to dengue infection in Southeast Asian countries. The efficacy of dengue vaccine was estimated to be 50-95% for those <9 years, 9 years, and >9 years. In particular, several studies reported that dengue vaccine could be categorized as a cost-effective intervention in Southeast Asian countries within certain conditions.

Keywords: SEAR; cost-effective; dengue; immunization; vaccine.