Vaccines can play a large role in promoting equity and reducing poverty. Researchers recently developed analytical methods to examine the potential distributional impact (across socioeconomic groups) and poverty reduction impact (decrease in the number of cases of medical impoverishment) of vaccines in low- and middle-income countries. Vaccines were found to have large pro-poor benefits: they could reduce health disparities in populations, as vaccine-preventable deaths averted would be more important among the lowest than among the highest socioeconomic groups; and, they could prevent a large number of cases of medical impoverishment, largely concentrated among the poorest socioeconomic groups. Vaccines could cost-effectively contribute to reducing health disparities and poverty in developing countries.  

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