A Comparative Analysis of Influenza Vaccination Programs

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dc.creatorBansal, Shwetaen
dc.creatorPourbohloul, Babaken
dc.creatorMeyers, Lauren Ancelen
dc.date.accessioned2013-06-28T15:22:54Zen
dc.date.available2013-06-28T15:22:54Zen
dc.date.issued2006-10-03en
dc.descriptionShweta Bansal is with UT Austin, Babak Pourbohloul is with University of British Columbia, Lauren Ancel Meyer is with UT Austin and the Santa Fe Institute.en
dc.description.abstractBackground -- The threat of avian influenza and the 2004–2005 influenza vaccine supply shortage in the United States have sparked a debate about optimal vaccination strategies to reduce the burden of morbidity and mortality caused by the influenza virus. Methods and Findings -- We present a comparative analysis of two classes of suggested vaccination strategies: mortality-based strategies that target high-risk populations and morbidity-based strategies that target high-prevalence populations. Applying the methods of contact network epidemiology to a model of disease transmission in a large urban population, we assume that vaccine supplies are limited and then evaluate the efficacy of these strategies across a wide range of viral transmission rates and for two different age-specific mortality distributions. We find that the optimal strategy depends critically on the viral transmission level (reproductive rate) of the virus: morbidity-based strategies outperform mortality-based strategies for moderately transmissible strains, while the reverse is true for highly transmissible strains. These results hold for a range of mortality rates reported for prior influenza epidemics and pandemics. Furthermore, we show that vaccination delays and multiple introductions of disease into the community have a more detrimental impact on morbidity-based strategies than mortality-based strategies. Conclusions -- If public health officials have reasonable estimates of the viral transmission rate and the frequency of new introductions into the community prior to an outbreak, then these methods can guide the design of optimal vaccination priorities. When such information is unreliable or not available, as is often the case, this study recommends mortality-based vaccination priorities.en
dc.description.departmentCellular and Molecular Biologyen
dc.description.sponsorshipWe acknowledge the financial support of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Santa Fe Institute, and a NASA Harriett G. Jenkins Fellowship to SB. The funding agencies had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.en
dc.identifier.citationBansal S, Pourbohloul B, Meyers LA (2006) A Comparative Analysis of Influenza Vaccination Programs. PLoS Med 3(10): e387. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0030387en
dc.identifier.doi10.1371/journal.pmed.0030387en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2152/20525en
dc.language.isoengen
dc.publisherPublic Library of Scienceen
dc.rightsAttribution 3.0 United Statesen
dc.rightsCC-BYen
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/en
dc.subjectElderlyen
dc.subjectEpidemiologyen
dc.subjectInfectious disease epidemiologyen
dc.subjectInfluenzaen
dc.subjectMortality rateen
dc.subjectPopulation groupingsen
dc.subjectVaccination and immunizationen
dc.subjectVaccinesen
dc.titleA Comparative Analysis of Influenza Vaccination Programsen
dc.typeArticleen

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