Beyond saving lives, vaccines save money

Apart from saving the lives of 3 million children yearly, immunisation is one of the most successful and cost-effective public health investments. LARA ADEJORO who was at the 2-day training workshop in Abuja organized by the Women Advocates for Vaccine Access (WAVA) supported by Direct Consulting and Logistics (DCL) and the Johns Hopkins International Vaccine Access Centre (IVAC) for Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) from the six geo-political zones of Nigeria on immunization advocacy writes

Vaccines are one of the greatest investment of all time as they are directly responsible for the increased life expectancy, prevent hospitalizations and childhood preventable diseases.
But beyond saving lives, this reduction in disease means a reduction in the cost of treating these illnesses. This translates into vaccines being not only lifesaving, but money-saving as well.
Studies have shown that, if a country invests one dollar in vaccine programme, such country will reap the benefits up to 44 times more. But, if immunization is not prioritised, the most relegated children will not get vaccines, which could mean the difference between life and death.
It is in lieu of this that the CSOs in Nigeria are calling on the state and federal governments to accelerate efforts towards sustainable immunisation financing as the donor support for immunization programmes will get smaller from 2017 and may be completely withdrawn by 2022.
The convener of the workshop, Dr Chizoba Wonodi said Nigeria is a country where vaccines are needed and they must be made accessible to save women and children.
Wonodi said, “it’s very important we start preparing for the withdrawal of the Global Alliance for Vaccines’ (GAVI) support because GAVI makes significant contribution in immunisation programme, so we will be looking at increasing government’s contribution to immunisation. The requirement for immunisation is going to increase by more than four times between 2017 and 2022. We can’t wake up overnight and expect the money to be available, that’s why we are advocating for it now.
“Immunization is one of the best things you can spend your money on. It’s a programme that prevents children from getting sick because the alternative is very unpalatable. If you don’t vaccinate children and they fall sick, you’ll spend money treating them in hospitals, their parents will not go to work.”
Speaking on the overview of evidence supporting the broader value of vaccines, the Manager, Scientific Communications of IVAC, Julie Younkin said, vaccine preventable diseases (VPDs) such as pneumonia and diarrhea can affect a child’s growth and put children at risk of further infections.
“Vaccines can help protect against the effects of malnutrition. Vaccines against measles has been shown to increase education attainment and some VPDs have been shown to negatively impact school readiness and performance.”
Younkin said, treatment of VPDs carries a heavy financial toll on families. “Study in South Africa shows that 35% of mothers whose children survive meningitis stopped working and quit their jobs to take care of their children.”
She said, people living in poverty are at greater risk of VPDs. “Children in slums, children of less educated parents, children of less empowered women, malnourished children are at greater risk of VPDs. 70% of Nigerians are living below poverty line, this means, there are a lot of Nigerians are at risk of VPDs.”
Senior Manager, Technical for DCL, Dr Laz Ude Eze urged the government to fund vaccines because it has been proven to be the most cost-effective intervention.
“It will save the money of the government in the medium term and in the long term because vaccines prevent diseases.
“When people are given vaccines, particularly children and women and other adults who might be eligible to the vaccines, it prevents diseases and saves people the money they would have spent to treat those diseases because prevention is always cheaper. An example is the case of polio that 9.8bn was budgeted for but the resurgence of three cases of polio in Borno costs the government more than N20 billion, that is more than two times of what was budgeted to provide the vaccines.”
The public health physician said, “this period that the country is not in the best of the situation is a time to ensure that more people are protected. More than 70% of healthcare in this country is out of pocket, so putting money in this will save people more money.
“Immunisation also helps in productivity. There’s no parent that will sit in the office and be productive if the child has pneumonia or meningitis or measles.”
He said, immunisation for every child, irrespective of where the person is living in Nigeria must be a priority.
The Executive Director of A Syndicate in Supporting Women and Children Initiative (SISWACHI) in Bauchi State, Maryam Mohammed said, the international donors who support vaccines and immunisation in Nigeria have been helpful and “people who used to shy away from immunisation in my state are beginning to embrace it with more awareness on the benefits of immunizing their children.”
She said one of the major strategies put in place to achieve that is community partnership with all the donor agencies, the local CSOs and the community leaders
“It’s a strategy whereby the traditional leaders, the Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs), the barbers, the women groups and the role models come together to implement the strategy and government needs to invest in vaccines because we can’t allow our children to die, we have to take action now and the time is right now.”
Corroborating, the Programme Officer of Resource Center for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED), Kano, Zuwaira Omar Mohammed said, “the best is to bring the traditional leaders, the religious leaders and men in the community together because our women are more under the control of men and the men are the husbands and the Iman. When the Imam preaches on the importance of immunisation, it will have more impact.”
Omar Mohammed said, “the reason Nigerian government should look into the funding of vaccines is because there is so much importance if you immunize a child against preventable diseases because some of the diseases children die from are preventable.
“A vaccinated child grows up to be healthy and endowed than a child that is not vaccinated. My people have started seeing the benefits of vaccination especially in the case of polio because when they see the children limbs go numb, they now go for immunisation.”
According to Wonodi, there is a funding gap for immunization programme in Nigeria due to the increasing birth cohort, introduction of new vaccines and the five-year accelerated transition out of GAVI funding support for new vaccines starting from 2017.
She however called for the allocation of at least $140 million to immunization in the 2017 budget and encouraged civil society organizations to lead advocacy for unhindered access to immunization at their various operational locations.