2,241 research outputs found
Urban Cholera transmission hotspots and their implications for Reactive Vaccination: evidence from Bissau city, Guinea Bissau
Use of cholera vaccines in response to epidemics (reactive vaccination) may provide an effective supplement to traditional control measures. In Haiti, reactive vaccination was considered but, until recently, rejected in part due to limited global supply of vaccine. Using Bissau City, Guinea-Bissau as a case study, we explore neighborhood-level transmission dynamics to understand if, with limited vaccine and likely delays, reactive vaccination can significantly change the course of a cholera epidemic
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Emerging Challenges and Opportunities in Infectious Disease Epidemiology.
Much of the intellectual tradition of modern epidemiology stems from efforts to understand and combat chronic diseases persisting through the 20th century epidemiologic transition of countries such as the United States and United Kingdom. After decades of relative obscurity, infectious disease epidemiology has undergone an intellectual rebirth in recent years amid increasing recognition of the threat posed by both new and familiar pathogens. Here, we review the emerging coalescence of infectious disease epidemiology around a core set of study designs and statistical methods bearing little resemblance to the chronic disease epidemiology toolkit. We offer our outlook on challenges and opportunities facing the field, including the integration of novel molecular and digital information sources into disease surveillance, the assimilation of such data into models of pathogen spread, and the increasing contribution of models to public health practice. We next consider emerging paradigms in causal inference for infectious diseases, ranging from approaches to evaluating vaccines and antimicrobial therapies to the task of ascribing clinical syndromes to etiologic microorganisms, an age-old problem transformed by our increasing ability to characterize human-associated microbiota. These areas represent an increasingly important component of epidemiology training programs for future generations of researchers and practitioners
Mitigating Epidemics through Mobile Micro-measures
Epidemics of infectious diseases are among the largest threats to the quality
of life and the economic and social well-being of developing countries. The
arsenal of measures against such epidemics is well-established, but costly and
insufficient to mitigate their impact. In this paper, we argue that mobile
technology adds a powerful weapon to this arsenal, because (a) mobile devices
endow us with the unprecedented ability to measure and model the detailed
behavioral patterns of the affected population, and (b) they enable the
delivery of personalized behavioral recommendations to individuals in real
time. We combine these two ideas and propose several strategies to generate
such recommendations from mobility patterns. The goal of each strategy is a
large reduction in infections, with a small impact on the normal course of
daily life. We evaluate these strategies over the Orange D4D dataset and show
the benefit of mobile micro-measures, even if only a fraction of the population
participates. These preliminary results demonstrate the potential of mobile
technology to complement other measures like vaccination and quarantines
against disease epidemics.Comment: Presented at NetMob 2013, Bosto
Vaccination in emergencies.
Nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) are the main actors of vaccine delivery during complex humanitarian emergencies such as large population displacements. This paper discusses the use of vaccinations against measles, cholera and meningitis in this context. The role of NGOs in the advocacy for making new and more effective vaccines available to the most vulnerable populations is also emphasised
Modeling the Influence of Environment and Intervention on Cholera in Haiti
We propose a simple model with two infective classes in order to model the
cholera epidemic in Haiti. We include the impact of environmental events
(rainfall, temperature and tidal range) on the epidemic in the Artibonite and
Ouest regions by introducing terms in the transmission rate that vary with
environmental conditions. We fit the model on weekly data from the beginning of
the epidemic until December 2013, including the vaccination programs that were
recently undertaken in the Ouest and Artibonite regions. We then modified these
projections excluding vaccination to assess the programs' effectiveness. Using
real-time daily rainfall, we found lag times between precipitation events and
new cases that range from 3.4 to 8.4 weeks in Artibonite and 5.1 to 7.4 in
Ouest. In addition, it appears that, in the Ouest region, tidal influences play
a significant role in the dynamics of the disease. Intervention efforts of all
types have reduced case numbers in both regions; however, persistent outbreaks
continue. In Ouest, where the population at risk seems particularly besieged
and the overall population is larger, vaccination efforts seem to be taking
hold more slowly than in Artibonite, where a smaller core population was
vaccinated. The models including the vaccination programs predicted that a year
and six months later, the mean number of cases in Artibonite would be reduced
by about two thousand cases, and in Ouest by twenty four hundred cases below
that predicted by the models without vaccination. We also found that
vaccination is best when done in the early spring, and as early as possible in
the epidemic. Comparing vaccination between the first spring and the second,
there is a drop of about 40% in the case reduction due to the vaccine and about
10% per year after that
DYNAMIC ANALYSIS OF THE MATHEMATICAL MODEL OF THE SPREAD OF CHOLERA WITH VACCINATION STRATEGIES
This research discusses the math model of spreading cholera disease with a mathematical strategy of math model constructed by considering a vaccination strategy. In addition, there is a population of hyperinfectious and lessinfectious bacteria so that the model of SVIR-BhiBli type, by. The model formed in the form of determination of fixed point, determination of basic reproductions numbers, analyzing the equilibrium point and sensitivity analysis. The equilibrium analysis produces two equilibrium points of a immediate-free equilibrium point of aceletotic local if and endemic equilibrium points will be stable local asymptotics if . Furthermore, numerical simulation that the increase in vaccination rate influences on the decline in value while increased rate of vaccine depreciation can increase the value of . In addition, sensitivity analysis shows that if the parameter is enhanced while other contrast parameters will contribute to the increase in value, as a result can increase the rate of transmission of cholera disease. Whereas if the parameter is enhanced while other contrast parameters will contribute to the decrease in value, as a result of the dissemination of the disease can be pressed very significantly
Optimal Control Modeling and Simulation, with Application to Cholera Dynamics
The theory of optimal control, a modern extension of the calculus of variations. has found many applications in a wide range of scientific fields, particularly in epidemiology with respect to disease prevention and intervention. In this dissertation. we conduct optimal control modeling, simulation and analysis to cholera dynamics. Cholera is a severe intestinal infectious disease that remains a serious public health threat in developing countries. Transmission of cholera involves complex interactions between the human host, the pathogen, and the environment. The worldwide cholera outbreaks and their increasing severity, frequency and duration in recent years underscore the gap between the complex mechanism of cholera transmission and our current quantitative understanding and control strategies for this disease.
We incorporate multiple time-dependent intervention strategies, including vaccination, antibiotic treatment, and water sanitation, into cholera epidemiological models and seek solutions that best balance the costs and gains of the controls. Pontryagin\u27s Maximum/Minimum principle allows us to construct the optimal control system that involves the state equations, the adjoint equations, and the optimality condition that characterizes the controls. The system is then numerically solved using an iterative procedure based on the Forward-Backward Sweep Method. We discuss in detail the mathematical models and numerical results for various scenarios and their implications to public health administration on disease control.
In the last part of this dissertation, we investigate new iterative algorithms with improved convergence properties compared to the original Forward-Backward Sweep Method. We discuss the applications of such numerical algorithms to optimal control problems as well as other types of constrained dynamical systems. We conduct careful error analysis and present several numerical examples to validate the analytic results
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