Quantifying the burden and economic costs of life-threatening disease, mortality and long-term sequelae associated with respiratory syncytial virus in low and middle-income settings

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the most important cause of severe acute respiratory disease in young children worldwide. Several promising vaccines are in advanced stages of clinical testing, raising the interests of international agencies, such as WHO, in accelerating the pathway to implementation.

I will provide much-needed data on severe RSV disease in young and older age groups, the associated risk of death, the predisposition to long-term respiratory problems that follows RSV disease in infancy and the associated costs of seeking treatment. The data will be acquired through KEMRI-Wellcome Trust research programme sites in Kenya and Uganda and will be used to quantify the full burden of RSV-linked diseases and support cost-effectiveness analyses of vaccines in settings with low resources. I will use our previously developed mathematical models to evaluate the impact and value for money of several vaccination strategies to protect infants and young children from RSV disease in Kenya and other similar settings.

The findings have the potential to inform potential funding budgets as well as helping to establish a fair and cost-effective price for an RSV vaccine in developing countries.

This grant was awarded under the scheme's previous name of Intermediate Fellowships in Public Health and Tropical Medicine.