January 26, 2012
The Economist interviewed CDDEP friend and collaborator Petra Klepac on optimal vaccination strategies, asking, under what circumstances does it make good economic and epidemiological sense to invest your resources in vaccinating neighboring communities?
The interview draws on a recent paper (with Ramanan Laxminarayan and Brian T. Grenfell), Synthesizing epidemiological and economic optima for control of immunizing infections, published in PNAS in July. The research incorporates an economic component into epidemiological models of vaccination that also take into account the phenomenon of herd immunity and the impact of human migration on disease control.
Read the full-text of the article at PNAS, and “Neighborly advice,” on the The Economist s Babbage blog.
Image credit: Flickr: Gates Foundation
