Public acceptance and willingness-to-pay for a future dengue vaccine: a community-based survey in Bandung, Indonesia.
BACKGROUND
All four serotypes of dengue virus are endemic in Indonesia, where the population at risk for infection exceeds 200 million people. Despite continuous control efforts that were initiated more than four decades ago, Indonesia still suffers from multi-annual cycles of dengue outbreak and dengue remains as a major public health problem. Dengue vaccines have been viewed as a promising solution for controlling dengue in Indonesia, but thus far its potential acceptability has not been assessed.


RESULTS
We conducted a household survey in the city of Bandung, Indonesia by administering a questionnaire to examine (i) acceptance of a hypothetical pediatric dengue vaccine; (ii) participant's willingness-to-pay (WTP) for the vaccine, had it not been provided for free; and (iii) whether people think vector control would be unnecessary if the vaccine was available. A proportional odds model and an interval regression model were employed to identify determinants of acceptance and WTP, respectively. We demonstrated that out of 500 heads of household being interviewed, 94.2% would agree to vaccinate their children with the vaccine. Of all participants, 94.6% were willing to pay for the vaccine with a median WTP of US$1.94. In addition, 7.2% stated that vector control would not be necessary had there been a dengue vaccination program.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest that future dengue vaccines can have a very high uptake even when delivered through the private market. This, however, can be influenced by vaccine characteristics and price. In addition, reduction in community vector control efforts may be observed following vaccine introduction but its potential impact in the transmission of dengue and other vector-borne diseases requires further study.
Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America ; Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Padjadjaran University, Bandung, West Java, Indonesia.
Panji Fortuna
PF
Hadisoemarto
Marcia C
MC
Castro
D003715:Dengue / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D053059:Dengue Vaccines / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000191:economics*; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007214:Indonesia / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
D053059:Dengue Vaccines