Why Was This Study Done?
As well as reducing the vaccinated person’s risk of infection, influenza vaccination protects
unvaccinated members of the population by reducing the chances of influenza spreading.
Because children make a disproportionately large contribution to the transmission of influenza,
vaccination of children might therefore provide greater benefits to the whole population
than vaccination of elderly people, particularly when vaccination uptake among
the elderly is low. Thus, many high-income countries now recommend annual influenza
vaccination of children with a trivalent live-attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV; a trivalent
vaccine contains three viruses), which is sprayed into the nose. However, to date no lowor
middle-income countries have evaluated this policy. Here, the researchers develop a
mathematical model (framework) to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of annual vaccination
of children with LAIV or trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine (TIV) in Thailand. A costeffectiveness
analysis evaluates whether a medical intervention is good value for money by
comparing the health outcomes and costs associated with the introduction of the intervention
with the health outcomes and costs of the existing standard of care. Thailand, a middle-
income country, offers everyone over 65 years old free seasonal influenza vaccination
with TIV, but vaccine coverage in this age group is low (10%).