TUESDAY, Feb. 19, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- Vaccination with recombinant zoster vaccine (RZV) seems cost-effective under a wide range of conditions, according to a study published online Feb. 19 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Lisa A. Prosser, Ph.D., from the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor, and colleagues examined the cost-effectiveness of RZV vaccination compared with zoster vaccine live (ZVL) and no vaccination in a hypothetical cohort of immunocompetent adults aged 50 years or older.
When the researchers used a societal perspective and assumed 100 percent completion of the two-dose RZV regimen, they found that the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) varied by age from $10,000 to $47,000 per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) for vaccination with RZV versus no vaccination. ICERs were less than $60,000 per QALY for those aged 60 years or older. In sensitivity analyses, results were most sensitive to changes in vaccine effectiveness, duration of protection, herpes zoster incidence, and probability of postherpetic neuralgia. For individuals aged 60 years or older, vaccination with RZV after ZVL yielded an ICER of less than $60,000 per QALY. RZV remained the preferred strategy in at least 95 percent of simulations, including those with 50 percent completion of the second dose, in probabilistic sensitivity analyses.
"Recombinant zoster vaccine represents an important new tool for preventing illness and reducing economic burden due to herpes zoster and its complications," the authors write.
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