Bulletin of the World Health Organization

Estimating the costs of achieving the WHO–UNICEF Global Immunization Vision and Strategy, 2006–2015

Lara J Wolfson, François Gasse, Shook-Pui Lee-Martin, Patrick Lydon, Ahmed Magan, Abdelmajid Tibouti, Benjamin Johns, Raymond Hutubessy, Peter Salama, Jean-Marie Okwo-Bele

Volume 86, Number 1, January 2008, 27-39

Table 4. Estimated costs of immunization in 117 low- and lower-middle-income countries, 2006–2015

Cumulative total 2006–2015 All countries
 72 GAVI Alliance-eligible countries (2003 GNI per capita < US$ 1000)
 45 low- and lower-middle-income countries(GNI per capita < US$ 3035)
US$ billions % of totala US$ billions % of totala US$ billions % of totala
Vaccine cost 24 31
12 35
11 27
Traditional vaccines 3.8 (16) 2.5 (20) 1.3 (12)
Underused vaccines 10.2 (43) 5.7 (46) 4.5 (40)
New vaccines 9.8 (41) 4.3 (35) 5.5 (48)
Systems cost 50 66 21 59 29 70
Maintaining current system 41.0 (82) 15.3 (73) 25.8 (88)
System scale-up(coverage and new vaccines) 9.0 (18) 5.6 (27) 3.4 (12)
Campaign (including polio) cost 2.3 3 2.2 6 0.2 <1
Total (lower and upper bounds)
 76 (23-110)
35 (13-40)
42 (11-70)
Spending to maintain current 48.8 64
19.3 54
29.5 71
Spending to scale up
 27.4
 36
 16.2
 46
 11.2
 29
Average unit costs 2006–2015 US$ 5th and 95th percentiles US$ 5th and 95th percentiles US$ 5th and 95th percentiles
Spending per child born 65 28–210 46 27–167 105 49–323
Maintenance costs per child born 41.6 8–150 24.8 7–105 74.8 18–169
Scaling up costs per child born 23.3 14–82 20.8 15–64 28.3 14–93
Spending per capita 1.38 0.78–4.63 1.18 0.78–4.01 1.66 0.80–6.41
Maintenance costs per capita 0.88 0.27–3.32 0.64 0.21–3.11 1.18 0.32–4.55
Scaling up costs per capita 0.50 0.30–2.09 0.54 0.32–1.88 0.45 0.29–2.57