Vaccination against Herpes Zoster and Postherpetic Neuralgia in France: A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis

This review provides documentation and critical appraisal of published data concerning the humanistic, economic and societal burden of herpes zoster (HZ) in Europe. From a review of 1619 abstracts, 53 eligible articles, were identified which reported data concerning healthcare resource use (n = 38), direct costs (n = 20), indirect costs (n = 16), total costs (n = 10) and impact on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) (n = 21).The findings indicate that postherpetic neuralgia…

Valuing the health of children for cost-utility or cost-benefit analysis is more challenging than valuing adult health. Young children cannot conceptualize value, they are not responsible for their own decision making, and proxies may not fully understand the child perspective. Moreover illness in children may affect parent/caregiver health and quality of life, further complicating the measurement of value associated with a change in a child’s health status.This paper reviews the most common approaches (QALYs and willingness-to-pay)…

This article reports on a clinical trial (NCT01954251) of herpes zoster subunit vaccine (HZ/su) co-administered with a quadrivalent seasonal inactivated influenza vaccine (IIV4) in adults age 50 years and older. Outcome measures were vaccine response rate and antibody response in the intervention compared to control groups.  There were 413 subjects in the intervention group and 415 in the control. Antibody response was within statistical limits for similarity between the two groups; no safety concerns were…