Thakur, Mugdha

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Masthead LogoVirginia Commonwealth UniversityVCU Scholars CompassBiology and Medicine Through MathematicsConference 2019May 16th, 10:30 AMCost analysis and evaluation of age- and risk-basedmass drug administration against Soil TransmittedHelminthiasis in GhanaMugdha Thakurmthakur4@asu.eduFollow this and additional works at: https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/bammPart of the Life Sciences Commons, Medicine and Health Sciences Commons, and the PhysicalSciences and Mathematics CommonsThis Event is brought to you for free and open access by the Dept. of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics at VCU Scholars Compass. It has beenaccepted for inclusion in Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference by an authorized administrator of VCU Scholars Compass. Formore information, please contact libcompass@vcu.edu.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/bamm/2019/thur/1Cost-analysis and evaluation of implementation of age andrisk based mass drug administration against Soil-TransmittedHelminthiasis in GhanaMugdha Thakur1,a Rasheeda Mohammed2,b Anuj Mubayi3,aa Simon A. Levin- Mathematical, Computational and Modeling Sciences Center,Arizona State University, 1031 S. Palm Walk, Tempe, AZ, US, 85281b Harvard/MGH Center on Genomics, Vulnerable Populations, and HealthDisparities, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 021141mthakur4@asu.edu 2ramniham92@gmail.com 3amubayi@asu.eduSoil-transmitted helminthiasis (STH), a neglected tropical disease (NTD) re-mains a major health problem all over the world including Ghana, one of the highSTH prevalent countries (25.4%). To control the disease, the resource-limited gov-ernment of Ghana currently concentrates on implementing mass drug administra-tion (MDA) efforts only among school-aged children. However, various studieshave identified that focusing on only a specific group for MDA for controlling thedisease may not be a cost-effective policy. Moreover, some adults such as teach-ers and school-workers spend large fraction of their time with children, who areknown high-risk population due to unhygienic behavior, and thus such adults havea higher risk to receiving infection. In this study we use a mathematical model toevaluate a novel set of age and risk based policies for implementing MDA basedon their costs and compared it with the current policy (focusing on school agechildren). Our results suggest that it is more cost-effective to allocate treatmentthrough MDA to at least some proportion of adults along with children as expectedand shown in previous studies. However when high-risk adults and children are se-lectively provided MDA, the reduction in prevalence of STH is slightly better thanthe reduction from the current policy but with significantly lower associated cost.In conclusion, implementation of a hybrid MDA policy based on age and risk ofthe population is crucial to reducing STH load in developing countries while beingcost-effective.

Cost analysis and evaluation of age- and risk-based mass drug administration against Soil Transmitted Helminthiasis in Ghana

https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1294&amp;context=bamm

Cost analysis and evaluation of age- and risk-based mass drug administration against Soil Transmitted Helminthiasis in Ghana

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