New study finds universal vaccination would prevent disease and save lives.

2003 DEC 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A U.S. hepatitis A immunization policy would prevent a significant number of debilitating cases of the disease and deaths associated with it, according to a new study.

Researchers examined the benefits of extending immunization nationwide to all healthy children age 2 and older, and found that national vaccination would reduce the number of primary cases of hepatitis A by 54% and the number of secondary cases by 76%, according to study coauthor David P. Greenberg, MD, director of the Center for Vaccine Research at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. Their findings were published in Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.

Researchers also reported that such a national immunization policy would be cost-effective. Hepatitis A is a potentially fatal disease, and is a significant drain on the U.S. economy, costing nearly $500 million annually. Despite the availability of safe and effective vaccines, hepatitis A remains the most commonly reported vaccine-preventable disease in the country. Current immunization policies are limited to children in 11 states where the rate of hepatitis A is twice the national average. However, these states account for only half of all reported cases of hepatitis A in the country.

"Our results suggest that universal vaccination of all children would prevent substantial illness and death associated with hepatitis A, averting more than 75,000 cases a year," Greenberg said. "In fact, the highest incidence of the disease is among children ages 5-14, with nearly one-third of all reported cases occurring among children under the age of 15. Even though young children often do not display any symptoms of hepatitis, they act as a 'reservoir' for the virus, easily infecting their older siblings and parents, for whom the disease can be far more serious."

While routine childhood hepatitis A immunization is currently only recommended in regions with incidence rates twice the national average, results of the study show that vaccination would be cost-effective in a wider geographic area. In coming to this conclusion, the authors considered vaccination of the 2000 United States birth cohort. The results were compiled using a Markov model, a decision-analysis tool, to predict hepatitis A infections among potential vaccinees and their personal contacts from ages 2-85.

Net vaccination costs were estimated from ...