title: The future of immunisation policy, implementation, and financing.
abstract: Vaccines have already saved many lives and they have the potential to save many more as increasingly elaborate technologies deliver new and effective vaccines against both infectious diseases--for which there are currently no effective licensed vaccines--such as malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV and non-infectious diseases such as hypertension and diabetes. However, these new vaccines are likely to be more complex and expensive than those that have been used so effectively in the past, and they could have a multifaceted effect on the disease that they are designed to prevent, as has already been seen with pneumococcal conjugate vaccines. Deciding which new vaccines a country should invest in requires not only sound advice from international organisations such as WHO but also a well informed national immunisation advisory committee with access to appropriate data for local disease burden. Introduction of vaccines might need modification of immunisation schedules and delivery procedures. Novel methods are needed to finance the increasing number of new vaccines that have the potential to save lives in countries that are too poor to afford them. Here, we discuss some options.
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. olevine@jhsph.edu
authors.forename: Orin S
authors.initials: OS
authors.lastname: Levine
authors.forename: David E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Bloom
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Cherian
authors.forename: Ciro
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: de Quadros
authors.forename: Samba
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sow
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wecker
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Duclos
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Greenwood
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005381:Financing, Organized; D014943:Global Health; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D007114:Immunization / Q000191:economics / Q000639:trends; D017589:Immunization Programs / Q000458:organization & administration*; D007223:Infant; D017053:Infection Control; D009313:National Health Programs; D014944:World Health Organization