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SUMMARY:Economic and epidemic optima for control of immunising infections 
 - Dr Petra Klepac\, Princeton
DTSTART:20110923T103000Z
DTEND:20110923T113000Z
UID:TALK32941@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Prof. Julia Gog
DESCRIPTION:The vaccination threshold required to interrupt transmission o
 f an immunizing infection like measles is predicted by epidemic theory to 
 depend only on transmission rates. Considering economic constraints and as
 suming that vaccination will have to continue after disease elimination to
  maintain herd immunity\, we look for optimal vaccination coverage that mi
 nimizes combined infection and vaccination costs. Surprisingly\, the optim
 um for disease control in a single population is determined mainly by rela
 tive costs of infection and control\, rather than transmission rates. Addi
 ng a spatial dimension can reduce or increase optimal vaccination levels d
 epending on the balance of costs and benefits.  For weakly coupled populat
 ions\, local optimal strategies (Nash optima) agree with the global cost-e
 ffective strategy\; however asymmetries in costs can lead to divergent con
 trol optima in more strongly coupled systems. We conclude by delineating w
 hen it is locally optimal to share vaccination resources with other popula
 tions.
LOCATION:DD47\, Cripps Court\, Queens' College
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