Where the road ends, yaws begins? The cost-effectiveness of eradication versus more roads.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

A disabling and disfiguring disease that "begins where the road ends", yaws is targeted by WHO for eradication by the year 2020. The global campaign is not yet financed. To evaluate yaws eradication within the context of the post-2015 development agenda, we perform a somewhat allegorical cost-effectiveness analysis of eradication, comparing it to a counterfactual in which we simply wait for more roads (the end of poverty).

Methods

We use evidence from four yaws eradication pilot sites and other mass treatment campaigns to set benchmarks for the cost of eradication in 12 known endemic countries. We construct a compartmental model of long-term health effects to 2050. Conservatively, we attribute zero cost to the counterfactual and allow for gradual exit of the sus

SUBMITTER: Fitzpatrick C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4177754 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature