Vaccines prevented more than 500 million illnesses and 1.13 million deaths among children born over the last three decades, according to a new study.
“Childhood immunizations continue to provide substantial health and economic benefits, while promoting health equity,” researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) wrote in a new Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
The team looked at the impact of nine vaccines among the 117 million children born from 1994-2023. Vaccines included diphtheria and tetanus toxoids and acellular pertussis; Haemophilus influenzae type b conjugate; oral and inactivated poliovirus; measles, mumps and rubella; hepatitis B; varicella; pneumococcal conjugate; hepatitis A and rotavirus.
Researchers calculated that these vaccines prevented 508 million lifetime illnesses, 32 million hospitalizations and 1.13 million deaths. Measles and varicella vaccines each prevented just over 100 million illnesses, according to the study. Measles vaccines also prevented the highest number of hospitalizations at 13.2 million. Diphtheria vaccines prevented an estimated 752,800 deaths.
The analysis also found a net savings of $540 billion in direct costs, which considered medical and nonmedical costs of having an infection. There also was $2.7 trillion in savings to society.
Many of the vaccines in the study had coverage rates near or above 90%. Authors credited the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program with helping vaccinate millions of children and contributing to cost savings. The VFC program provides free vaccines to children who are Medicaid-eligible, uninsured, underinsured, American Indian or Alaska Native.
“The VFC program reduces financial and logistical barriers for eligible children who otherwise might not have reasonable access to immunization, thereby promoting health equity and contributing substantially to these high coverage levels,” they wrote.
Resources
- Immunization schedule for children and adolescents
- AAP immunization resources
- AAP clinical report Strategies for Improving Vaccine Communication and Uptake
- CDC Routine Immunizations on Schedule for Everyone initiative
- Information for parents from HealthyChildren.org on recommended childhood immunizations
