 |
|
COMMENTS AND OPINIONS
Preattack Vaccination Against Anthrax May Be Cost-effective in Certain Populations
Robert J. Hopkins, MD, MPH, TM;
Thomas A. Waytes, MD, PhD;
Thomas K. Zink, MD
|
|
| Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings. |
|
|
|
Schmitt et al1 report that preexposure anthrax vaccination of US Postal Service (USPS) employees is more costly and results in more anthrax infections and deaths than postattack intervention. We believe that these conclusions are incorrect owing to a flawed study design and several questionable parameter estimates.
The most important flaw is the assumption that unvaccinated workers would be denied antibiotics after an attack, especially when 50% adherence to preattack vaccination is presumed. If instead these workers were modeled to receive antibiotics, quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) gained preventing anthrax cases would exceed QALYs lost to vaccine adverse events. Based on the presented incidence, duration and quality-of-life effects of vaccine adverse effects, 0.0000148 QALYs are lost per vaccination series. With a 50% adherence assumption, 2.6 QALYs would be lost because of adverse events. If one assumes that . . . [Full Text of this Article]
AUTHOR INFORMATION
RELATED LETTER
Preattack Vaccination Against Anthrax May Be Cost-effective in Certain Populations—Reply
Brian P. Schmitt, Deborah Dobrez, Demetrios N. Kyriacou, and Jorge Parada
Arch Intern Med. 2008;168(1):115.
EXTRACT
| FULL TEXT
RELATED ARTICLE
Responding to a Small-scale Bioterrorist Anthrax Attack: Cost-effectiveness Analysis Comparing Preattack Vaccination With Postattack Antibiotic Treatment and Vaccination
Brian Schmitt, Deborah Dobrez, Jorge P. Parada, Demetrios N. Kyriacou, Robert M. Golub, Rishi Sharma, and Charles Bennett
Arch Intern Med. 2007;167(7):655-662.
ABSTRACT
| FULL TEXT
|
