Resources Repository
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ArticlePublication 2016Challenges of Prioritization
Cost-effectiveness analysis has traditionally been applied primarily to very specific interventions, such as drugs and …
Cost-effectiveness analysis has traditionally been applied primarily to very specific interventions, such as drugs and diagnostics; in addition, the evidence base drawn on for evaluating such interventions is relatively good, given the medical research industry surrounding their testing. However, with increasing success in controlling infectious diseases, many of the health challenges facing countries concern broad threats to health with multiple causes, such as obesity, where the relationship between policy action and health benefit is not…
Benefit-Cost Analysis | Health Systems | Mental Health | Infectious Diseases | Priority Setting/Ethics | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Chronic Disease/Risk | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | Global -
ArticlePublication 2023Benefits and Costs of COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates
Written mid-pandemic, this article evaluates the direct costs and health benefits of requiring COVID-19 vaccinations …
Written mid-pandemic, this article evaluates the direct costs and health benefits of requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for U.S. federal employees and healthcare and private sector workers. These mandates were controversial and some were halted by litigation. If they had been implemented as intended, the net benefits would depend on the course of the pandemic. If a more transmissible variant (such as Omicron) emerges, the net benefits may be large. If the pandemic instead fades, the benefits…
Mathematical Models | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Infectious Diseases | State-Transition | Policy/Regulation | Business/Industry | Economics/Finance | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | North America -
ArticlePublication 2017Catastrophic Costs Potentially Averted by TB Control in India and South Africa
This study estimated the reduction in tuberculosis-related catastrophic costs with an aggressive expansion of tuberculosis …
This study estimated the reduction in tuberculosis-related catastrophic costs with an aggressive expansion of tuberculosis services in India and South Africa from 2016 to 2035, in line with the End TB Strategy. The authors investigated three intervention scenarios: improved treatment of drug-sensitive tuberculosis; improved treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis; and expansion of access to tuberculosis care through intensified case finding (South Africa only). In India and South Africa, improvements in treatment for drug-sensitive and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis…
Mathematical Models | Health Systems | Infectious Diseases | Priority Setting/Ethics | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | Sub-Saharan Africa | Asia & Pacific -
ArticlePublication 2019Health and Financial Benefits of Averting Malaria in Zambia: An ECEA
This study used the extended cost-effectiveness analysis (ECEA) to examine impact of the hypothetical rollout …
This study used the extended cost-effectiveness analysis (ECEA) to examine impact of the hypothetical rollout of the malaria vaccine RTS,S/AS01 in Zambia on the health benefits of children under five, and financial benefits on their households. The authors assumed a three-dose vaccination schedule (over 6-9 months), and vaccine cost of US$5 per dose. To assess vaccine impact, for each income quintile, they computed the number of under-five malaria deaths prevented, the household out-of-pocket (OOP) malaria-related…
Mathematical Models | Health Systems | Infectious Diseases | Priority Setting/Ethics | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Health/Medicine | Sub-Saharan Africa -
ArticlePublication 2019Spatial Distribution and Characteristics of HIV
This article, published in Tropical Medicine & International Health, aims to identify the spatial and …
This article, published in Tropical Medicine & International Health, aims to identify the spatial and temporal trends, and epidemiologic correlates, of HIV clusters in Ethiopia. The authors use biomarker and survey data from the 2005, 2011, and 2016 Ethiopia Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), and the spatial-temporal distribution of HIV is estimated using the Kulldorff spatial scan statistic, a likelihood-based method for determining clustering. The study results indicate that in Ethiopia, geographic HIV clusters are…
Mathematical Models | Health Systems | Infectious Diseases | Health/Medicine | Sub-Saharan Africa -
ArticlePublication 2017Estimating the Fitness Cost and Benefit of Cefixime Resistance in Neisseria Gonorrhoeae
Gonorrhoea is one of the most common bacterial sexually transmitted infections in England, and more …
Gonorrhoea is one of the most common bacterial sexually transmitted infections in England, and more than half of annual infections occur in men who have sex with men (MSM). As the bacterium has developed resistance to each first-line antibiotic in turn, an improved understanding is needed of fitness benefits and costs of antibiotic resistance to inform control policy and planning. The authors developed a stochastic compartmental model representing the natural history and transmission of cefixime-sensitive…
Risk Analysis | Health Systems | Infectious Diseases | Dynamic Transmission | Decision Analysis | Policy/Regulation | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology | Global -
ArticlePublication 2017Getting it Right When Budgets are Tight: Prioritizing Responses to HIV Epidemics
Prioritizing investments across health interventions is complicated by the nonlinear relationship between intervention coverage and …
Prioritizing investments across health interventions is complicated by the nonlinear relationship between intervention coverage and epidemiological outcomes. It can be difficult for countries to know which interventions to prioritize for greatest epidemiological impact, particularly when budgets are uncertain.The authors examined four case studies of HIV epidemics in diverse settings, each with different characteristics. These case studies were based on public data available for Belarus, Peru, Togo, and Myanmar. The Optima HIV model and software package…
Mathematical Models | Health Systems | Infectious Diseases | Priority Setting/Ethics | Costing Methods | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | Sub-Saharan Africa | Middle East & North Africa | Latin America & Caribbean | Asia & Pacific -
ArticlePublication 2017Designing an Optimal HIV Programme for South Africa
This 2017 study compares the traditional and a novel method of comparing cost-effectiveness interventions in …
This 2017 study compares the traditional and a novel method of comparing cost-effectiveness interventions in the context of HIV in South Africa, using a modeling approach. The authors argue that the assumptions of a) independence of interventions, and b) linear scale-up effects do not hold because South Africa has a large domestically funded HIV program with highly saturated coverage levels. The authors therefore aim to better allocate resources for HIV interventions in South Africa when…
Mathematical Models | Health Systems | Infectious Diseases | Priority Setting/Ethics | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Operations Research | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | Sub-Saharan Africa -
ArticlePublication 2017Policy Makers, the International Community and the Population: Case Study on HIV/AIDS
A four-period game is developed between a policy maker, the international community, and the population. …
A four-period game is developed between a policy maker, the international community, and the population. This research supplements, through implementing strategic interaction, earlier research analyzing "one player at a time." The first two players distribute funds between preventing and treating diseases. The population reacts by degree of risky behavior which may cause no disease, disease contraction, recovery, sickness/death. More funds to prevention implies less disease contraction but higher death rate given disease contraction. The cost…
Mathematical Models | Health Systems | Infectious Diseases | Decision Psychology | Priority Setting/Ethics | Global Governance | Economics/Finance | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Global