A study in eLife reveals that a model can estimate regional disease burden and the impact of vaccination, even in the absence of robust surveillance data.
The report, originally published on 26 May 2020, highlights areas that would have the greatest benefit from initiating a vaccination programme against the virus, Japanese encephalitis (JE). This will in turn guide rational assessment of the cost and benefit of vaccinations, and support policymaker decisions on allocating vaccines.
JE is a mosquito-borne disease, known for its high mortality and disability rate among symptomatic cases. Many effective vaccines are available for it, and the use of a recently developed and inexpensive vaccine has been increasing over the recent years. Estimates of the local burden and the past impact of vaccination are therefore increasingly needed, but difficult due to the limitations of JE surveillance.
In this study, researchers implemented a mathematical modelling method (catalytic model) combined with age-stratifed case data from the systematic review which can overcome some of these limitations.
Read the full paper here
