[Evaluation of vaccination policies. The case of measles]

Any immunization policy involves a given vaccination coverage rate and a related cost of implementation. Moreover, for each vaccination coverage rate, there are associated costs for treating residual morbidity and its human and social consequences. Thus, an overall cost can be determined for each coverage rate, and an optimal policy can be defined. This approach is illustrated in the paper by examining the costs and advantages of a measles vaccination program for France. We first calculate the various costs of the present situation (in which vaccination coverage is close to 0%), and then simulate the cost of total eradication of measles (vaccination coverage = 100%). The results show that the latter policy is to be preferred from every point of view.