title: Economic evaluation of measles catch-up and follow-up campaigns in Afghanistan in 2002 and 2003.
abstract: This paper assesses the cost-effectiveness of, and the return on the investment in, the 2002 catch-up and the 2003 follow-up measles campaigns in Afghanistan from the perspective of the donor. The catch-up campaign targeted nearly 12 million children aged between six months and 12 years, while the follow-up campaign targeted over five million children aged between 9 and 59 months. Both campaigns successfully vaccinated approximately 96 per cent of the respective target populations, and are expected to avert an estimated 301,000 measles deaths over the next 10 years. The average cost per dose of measles vaccine delivered was USD 0.40. The cost per death prevented is USD 23.6, assuming a case fatality rate of 10 per cent and a discount rate of three per cent. With more than 42,000 measles deaths avoided for every one million US dollars spent, the campaigns are an excellent public health investment for precluding childhood mortality in a country affected by a complex emergency.
authors.affiliation: The National Immunization Program, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA. mvijayaraghavan@cdc.gov
authors.forename: Maya
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vijayaraghavan
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lievano
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cairns
authors.forename: Lara
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wolfson
authors.forename: Robin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nandy
authors.forename: Amir
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ansari
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Golaz
authors.forename: Taufiq
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mashal
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Salama
mesh_terms: D000346:Afghanistan; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D006801:Humans; D017589:Immunization Programs / Q000458:organization & administration*; D007223:Infant; D008457:Measles / Q000276:immunology*