denvax

denvax evaluates cost-benefit thresholds for dengue vaccination strategies, focusing on CYD-TDV (Dengvaxia) and the impact of pre-vaccination serostatus testing to determine economic viability.

Key Features:

• Threshold Modeling Analysis: Employs threshold modeling that integrates epidemiological data with intervention strategies and costs (testing, vaccination, and dengue infection management) to simulate scenarios.
• Economic Viability Assessment: Assesses return on investment (ROI) for test-then-vaccinate strategies and identifies circumstances where serostatus testing enhances economic viability or where pre-screening can prevent positive net-benefits.
• Customization for Local Contexts: Incorporates local estimates of age-specific seroprevalence and costs associated with secondary infections to tailor analyses to regional epidemiological settings.
• Strategic Insights: Evaluates the effects of starting routine testing at younger ages and repeat testing on ROI and highlights the potential impact of test sensitivity and specificity on policy considerations such as WHO age restrictions.

Scientific Applications:

• Policy Formulation: Informs health policy decisions by quantifying economic trade-offs of CYD-TDV deployment under alternative testing and vaccination strategies.
• Research and Development: Enables researchers to explore hypotheses about test-then-vaccinate strategies and their economic and epidemiological consequences.
• Public Health Strategy Optimization: Supports evaluation of vaccination program designs to optimize resource allocation and health outcomes across different epidemiological settings.

Methodology:

Uses threshold modeling to integrate epidemiological data with intervention strategies and costs (testing, vaccination, dengue infection management), simulates scenarios to assess ROI for test-then-vaccinate strategies, and allows inputs for age-specific seroprevalence and secondary infection costs while exploring effects of starting age, repeat testing, and test sensitivity/specificity.