What criteria do decision makers in Thailand use to set priorities for vaccine introduction?

BMC Public Health

Table 1 Vaccine data for Thailand, based on seven criteria developed from a best–worst scaling (BWS) study

Criterion	Unit	Vaccine
Criterion	Unit	JE [27, 28, 37–39]	HepB^a [17, 27, 28, 39, 40]	Hib [27, 28, 39, 41, 42]	Rotavirus [27, 28, 39, 43, 44]	PCV-13 [27, 28, 39, 45, 46]
Burden of disease	Annual incidence per 100,000 population	15–18	6,000–8,000	3.8	33,578	11–29
Target group	Age	18–24 months	0–6 months	<5 years	0–5 years	<5 years
Budget impact	Baht per year	239,677,298	355,644,870	1,443,565,660	1,041,994,995	5,121,681,482
Side effect	% of fever	1–2	1–6	2–10	0	33
Severity of disease	n/a	Death (10–20 %); two-thirds of survivors are left with permanent neuropsychiatric sequelae	Hepatocellular carcinoma	Death, disability	Not severe	Invasive pneumococcal disease (meningitis, bacteremia)
Effectiveness	%	84.8	80	95	70–85	89
Cost of vaccine	Baht per course	291	432	1,753	1,265	6,208
Registration year	n/a	2002	2000	1998	2008	2010

^aThis scenario included HepB vaccine at birth and DTP–HepB vaccine at 2, 4 and 6 months, as recommended in the Thai EPI
JE: Japanese encephalitis; HepB: hepatitis B; Hib: Haemophilus influenzae type B; PCV-13: pneumococcal conjugate vaccine

ISSN: 1471-2458