DIMACS Special Epidemiology Seminar


Title: Infectious disease and productivity trade-offs

Speaker: Jacques Kibambe Ngoie, University of Pretoria

Date: Tuesday, April 15, 2008 2:30-3:30pm

Location: DIMACS Center, CoRE Bldg, Room 431, Rutgers University, Busch Campus, Piscataway, NJ


Abstract:

This paper investigates a set of productivity trade-offs linked to decision concerns that play a role in the progression of outbreaks. It is observable that major cost and productivity related issues emanate between treating infectious diseases at an individual household level and treating the diseases at community level. As supported within the epidemiology literature, our preliminary findings suggest that wider access to care at community level is more efficient (higher productivity gain) and constitutes a lesser burden as compared to securing infected individual treatment. Concomitantly, the research discusses few other related dilemmas such as the choice between prioritizing producers' treatment or consumers' treatment in case of resource limitations.

Joint with Nina Fefferman, DIMACS.