The Potential Demand for an HIV/AIDS Vaccine in Brazil
This study assesses the potential demand by the public sector for a preventive HIV/AIDS vaccine in Brazil and the costs of alternative strategies for a vaccination program. Brazil has a mature AIDS epidemic: the percent of the population living wit...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2014
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2002/12/2113666/potential-demand-hivaids-vaccine-brazil http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19193 |
| Summary: | This study assesses the potential demand
by the public sector for a preventive HIV/AIDS vaccine in
Brazil and the costs of alternative strategies for a
vaccination program. Brazil has a mature AIDS epidemic: the
percent of the population living with HIV or AIDS (about 0.6
percent of adults) is not as high as in other severely
affected developing countries, but infection rates in
specific risk groups in the population are very high and HIV
has spread beyond these groups into the general population
of low-risk individuals. Preventive HIV/AIDS vaccines are
still in the testing stage. The characteristics of the first
vaccines developed, in terms of their efficacy, duration of
effectiveness, ease of administration, and price, are still
unknown. But the potential benefits of such a vaccine in
Brazil would be high. The study reviews the cost and impact
of HIV/AIDS in Brazil, in terms of disease and economic
burden, as a proxy for the benefits of an HIV/AIDS vaccine.
The epidemiology of AIDS and Brazil's experience with
immunization coverage with other vaccines are used to assess
the number of vaccines, delivery strategies, and possible
costs of an HIV/AIDS immunization program in Brazil,
assuming the availability of a 100 percent effective AIDS
vaccine that lasts a lifetime under different pricing and
dosing assumptions. A low-cost, highly effective vaccine
would likely be affordable to an upper-middle-income country
like Brazil and yield large benefits from a policy of
universal, publicly subsidized immunization. But if prices
are higher and the impact less favorable, the costs and
effects would have to be compared with other AIDS prevention
programs or other health interventions. Both political and
economic considerations will likely figure into public
policy on HIV/AIDS vaccination, when such a vaccine is developed. |
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