Economic Evaluation of Individual School Closure Strategies: The Hong Kong 2009 H1N1 Pandemic.

ABSTRACT:

Background

School closures as a means of containing the spread of disease have received considerable attention from the public health community. Although they have been implemented during previous pandemics, the epidemiological and economic effects of the closure of individual schools remain unclear.

Methodology

This study used data from the 2009 H1N1 pandemic in Hong Kong to develop a simulation model of an influenza pandemic with a localised population structure to provide scientific justifications for and economic evaluations of individual-level school closure strategies.

Findings

The estimated cost of the study's baseline scenario was USD330 million. We found that the individual school closure strategies that involved all types of schools and those that used a low

SUBMITTER: Wong ZS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4731466 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature