Control of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) via mass drug administration (MDA) has increased considerably over the past decade, but strategies focused exclusively on human treatment show limited efficacy. This paper investigated trade-offs between drug and environmental treatments in the fight against NTDs by using schistosomiasis as a case study. We use optimal control techniques where the planner's objective is to treat the disease over a time horizon at the lowest possible total cost, where the total costs include treatment, transportation and damages (reduction in human health). We show that combining environmental treatments and drug treatments reduces the dependency on MDAs and that this reduction increases when the planners take a longer-run perspective on the fight to reduce NTDs. Our results suggest that NTDs with environmental reservoirs require moving away from a reliance solely on MDA to integrated treatment involving investment in both drug and environmental controls.
BT - Proceedings. Biological sciences C1 - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32842925 DA - 08/2020 DO - 10.1098/rspb.2020.0966 IS - 1933 J2 - Proc. Biol. Sci. LA - eng N2 -Control of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) via mass drug administration (MDA) has increased considerably over the past decade, but strategies focused exclusively on human treatment show limited efficacy. This paper investigated trade-offs between drug and environmental treatments in the fight against NTDs by using schistosomiasis as a case study. We use optimal control techniques where the planner's objective is to treat the disease over a time horizon at the lowest possible total cost, where the total costs include treatment, transportation and damages (reduction in human health). We show that combining environmental treatments and drug treatments reduces the dependency on MDAs and that this reduction increases when the planners take a longer-run perspective on the fight to reduce NTDs. Our results suggest that NTDs with environmental reservoirs require moving away from a reliance solely on MDA to integrated treatment involving investment in both drug and environmental controls.
PY - 2020 EP - 20200966 T2 - Proceedings. Biological sciences TI - Cost-effectiveness of combining drug and environmental treatments for environmentally transmitted diseases. UR - https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspb.2020.0966 VL - 287 SN - 1471-2954 ER -