Protecting men who have sex with men against gonorrhoea with the 4CMenB meningococcal B vaccine is cost effective, Imperial College London study finds. Gonorrhoea is a sexually transmitted disease which is caused by infection with the Neisseria gonorrhoeae bacterium. This mathematical modelling study by Imperial College London, published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases , combines data on disease transmission and economics to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of vaccinating men who have sex with men MSM with 4CMenB to protect against future gonorrhoea infection.
To be cost-effective vaccination has to offered to those who are particularly at risk of gonorrhoea.
Offering vaccination to patients diagnosed with gonorrhoea to reduce their risk of getting another infection can prevent 57, cases over 10 years and is cost-effective. Expanding the eligible group to include not only those with current infection but also uninfected individuals attending sexual health clinics who report more than five sexual partners per year is even more cost-effective.
This approach could prevent , gonorrhoea cases over 10 years. This study also examined the importance of variation in the population regarding how people feel about vaccination because this affects how many people ultimately get protected.
The authors demonstrate that a vaccination programme using 4CMenB does not need to achieve a minimum level of uptake to be cost-effective, although promoting vaccine uptake can increase the impact and value of the programme. Vaccination would be cost-saving because reduced costs of managing gonorrhoea cases outweigh the costs of the vaccination programme. Dr Sabine L. Meningococcal vaccine is cost effective at protecting men against gonorrhoea by Dr Sabine L.
