Resources Repository
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ArticlePublication 2019Systematic Review of Economic Evaluations of Vaccination Strategies Against Tuberculosis
Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is the only licensed vaccine for tuberculosis, but its effectiveness is limited …
Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is the only licensed vaccine for tuberculosis, but its effectiveness is limited and varies by age, so a valid cost-effectiveness study is needed to assist decision-makers in the implementation of cost-effective strategies for BCG vaccination. Using the Quality of Health Economic Studies (QHES) instrument, the authors assessed the quality of published studies involving economic evaluations of BCG vaccination strategies in a variety of regions, target populations, and vaccine types. Most of the…
Evidence Synthesis | Infectious Diseases | Mathematical Models | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Health/Medicine | Global -
ArticlePublication 2018Examining Evaluation Methods for Health Equity Policies
This article reviews diverse methods for evaluating public policies that address social determinants of health …
This article reviews diverse methods for evaluating public policies that address social determinants of health equity. Understanding approaches to evaluating public policies is essential in strengthening the evidence base that informs policy change. Examining 50 studies in the article, the authors find that most studies evaluating policies for health equity outcomes use observational research designs and regression techniques to analyze impact. Furthermore, the studies reviewed primarily relied on secondary data, and nearly three out of…
Evidence Synthesis | Global Governance | Health Outcomes | Social Determinants | Government/Law | Global -
ArticlePublication 2017Costing of National STI Program Implementation, 2016-2021
In 2016 the World Health Assembly adopted the Global Strategy on Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) …
In 2016 the World Health Assembly adopted the Global Strategy on Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) 2016–2021 aiming to reduce curable STIs by 90% by 2030. This analysis costed scaling-up priority interventions to achieve coverage targets. Strategy-targeted declines in Chlamydia trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Treponema pallidum and Trichomonas vaginalis were applied to WHO-estimated regional burdens at 2012 levels. Case management was costed for the curable STIs, symptomatic Herpes Simplex Virus 2 (HSV-2), and non-STI vaginal syndromes, with incrementally expanding diagnoses. Service…
Evidence Synthesis | Infectious Diseases | Costing Methods | Clinical Care | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | Global -
ArticlePublication 2017Using Data-Driven Agent-Based Models to Forecast Emerging Infectious Diseases
This paper describes an agent-based model framework developed to forecast the 2014-15 Ebola epidemic, which …
This paper describes an agent-based model framework developed to forecast the 2014-15 Ebola epidemic, which was subsequently used in the Ebola forecasting challenge. Producing timely and reliable forecasts for an epidemic of an emerging infectious disease is a challenge. Epidemiologists and policy makers have to deal with poor data quality, limited understanding of the disease dynamics, a rapidly changing social environment and the uncertainty around the effects of various interventions in place. In this setting,…
Calibration/Validation | Infectious Diseases | Microsimulation | Dynamic Simulation | Health/Medicine | Sub-Saharan Africa -
ArticlePublication 2017Likelihood Approach for Calibration of Stochastic Epidemic Models
Stochastic transmission dynamic models are especially useful for studying the early emergence of novel pathogens …
Stochastic transmission dynamic models are especially useful for studying the early emergence of novel pathogens given the importance of chance events when the number of infectious individuals is small. However, methods for parameter estimation and prediction for these types of stochastic models remain limited. This paper describes a calibration and prediction framework for stochastic compartmental transmission models of epidemics. The proposed method applies a linear noise approximation to describe the size of the fluctuations, and…
Calibration/Validation | Infectious Diseases | Dynamic Transmission | Dynamic Simulation | Health Systems | Health/Medicine | Global -
ArticlePublication 2016Global Burden of Latent Tuberculosis Infection
Given the importance of controlling latent TB infection (LTBI) as part of the End TB …
Given the importance of controlling latent TB infection (LTBI) as part of the End TB Strategy for eliminating TB by 2050, the authors felt that changes in demography and scientific understanding, and progress in TB control, made it necessary to re-assess the global burden of LTBI. The authors used constructed trends in annual risk in infection to calculate the number and proportions of individuals infected, recently infected, and recently infected with isoniazid (INH)-resistant strains, aggregated…
Evidence Synthesis | Infectious Diseases | Mathematical Models | Health/Medicine | Global -
ArticlePublication 2015Broader Economic Impact of Vaccination: Reviewing and Appraising the Strength of Evidence
Economic evaluations of public health programs such as immunization often consider only direct health benefits and …
Economic evaluations of public health programs such as immunization often consider only direct health benefits and medical cost savings. Evidence linking immunization to important benefits in indicators such as childhood development, household behavior, and other macro-economic data are unclear. A conceptual framework of the pathways between immunization and these broader economic benefits was developed through expert consultation. The authors obtained articles from previous reviews, snowballing, and expert consultation, and associated them with one of the pathways and assessed them using modified Grading…
Evidence Synthesis | Infectious Diseases | Preferences/Values | Priority Setting/Ethics | Costing Methods | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Social Determinants | Economics/Finance | Education/Labor | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2014Cost-Effectiveness of Female HPV Vaccination in 179 Countries: A PRIME Modelling Study
The authors present a simple generic model, Papillomavirus Rapid Interface for Modelling and Economics (PRIME), …
The authors present a simple generic model, Papillomavirus Rapid Interface for Modelling and Economics (PRIME), used to assess cost-effectiveness and health effects of vaccination of girls against HPV before sexual debut in terms of burden of cervical cancer and mortality. The PRIME models incidence according to proposed vaccine efficacy against HPV 16/18, vaccine coverage, cervical cancer incidence and mortality, and HPV type distribution. It assumes lifelong vaccine protection and no changes to other screening programs…
Calibration/Validation | Infectious Diseases | Health Outcomes | Mathematical Models | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Chronic Disease/Risk | Health Systems | Health/Medicine | Global | Sub-Saharan Africa | Middle East & North Africa | Latin America & Caribbean | Asia & Pacific -
ArticlePublication 2013Validation and Calibration of a Simulation Model of Pediatric HIV Infection
The authors developed a microsimulation model of pediatric HIV disease progression using the Cost-Effectiveness of …
The authors developed a microsimulation model of pediatric HIV disease progression using the Cost-Effectiveness of Preventing AIDS Complications (CEPAC) model framework. This CEPAC-Pediatric model was then validated by varying CD4 data and comparing the corresponding model-generated survival curves to empirical survival curves obtained from the International Epidemiologic Database to Evaluate AIDS (IeDEA). The model was calibrated to other African countries by systematically varying immunologic and HIV mortality-related input parameters. In the calibration analyses, the model-generated…
Calibration/Validation | Infectious Diseases | Microsimulation | Child/Nutrition | Health/Medicine | Sub-Saharan Africa