Journal Article

Modelling for policy: The five principles of the Neglected Tropical Diseases Modelling Consortium

Basáñez, María-Gloria, Porco, Travis C., Behrend, Matthew R., Stolk, Wilma A., de Vlas, Sake J., Walker, Martin, Hamley, Jonathan I. D.

2020

Overview

About the Authors: Matthew R. Behrend * E-mail: [e-mail] Affiliations Neglected Tropical Diseases, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, Washington, United States of America, Blue Well 8, Seattle, Washington, United States of America ORCID logo http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5664-0520 María-Gloria Basáñez Affiliation: MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis and London Centre for Neglected Tropical Disease Research, Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom Jonathan I. D. Hamley Affiliation: MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis and London Centre for Neglected Tropical Disease Research, Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom Travis C. Porco Affiliation: Francis I. Proctor Foundation for Research in Ophthalmology, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and Department of Ophthalmology, University of California, San Francisco, United States of America Wilma A. Stolk Affiliation: Department of Public Health, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands Martin Walker Affiliations London Centre for Neglected Tropical Disease Research, Department of Pathobiology and Population Sciences, Royal Veterinary College, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom, London Centre for Neglected Tropical Disease Research and Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom Sake J. de Vlas Affiliation: Department of Public Health, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands ORCID logo http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1830-5668 for the NTD Modelling Consortium Introduction The neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) thrive mainly among the poorest populations of the world. Onchocerciasis (a filarial disease caused by infection with Onchocerca volvulus and transmitted by blackfly, Simulium, vectors) probably provides the best example of impactful modelling, with its long history of using evidence—mostly from the ONCHOSIM and EPIONCHO transmission models [7]—to support decision-making within ongoing multicountry control initiatives (Table 1). Onchocerciasis modelling and policy impact. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0008033.t001 From the start of the NTD Modelling Consortium in 2015, there have been several other examples of impactful modelling, which could be divided over three major scales of operations: (1) developing WHO guidelines (e.g., for triple-drug therapy, with ivermectin, diethylcarbamazine, and albendazole, against lymphatic filariasis [16, 17]); (2) informing funding decisions for new intervention tools (e.g., the development of a schistosomiasis vaccine [18]); and (3) guiding within-country targeting of control (e.g., local vector control for human African trypanosomiasis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo [19, 20] and Chad [21]). Relative word frequencies are represented by size of the font. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0008033.g002 Scoring the guidance statements Authors coded the data set individually (MRB, TCP, WAS, SJdV) and jointly (M-GB, JIDH, MW), producing five independently coded sets of data (S1 Table).

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: African trypanosomiasis / Albendazole / Biology and Life Sciences / Charities / Chemotherapy / Consortia / Datasets / Decision making / Disease control / Drug therapy / Electronic mail / Epidemiology / Filariasis / Financing / Health care facilities / Health policy / Infectious diseases / Ivermectin / Literature reviews / Mathematical models / Medicine and Health Sciences / Methods / Modelling / Onchocerciasis / Ophthalmology / Physical Sciences / Policies / Policy Platform / Principles / Public health / Research and Analysis Methods / Schistosomiasis / Social Sciences / Therapy / Transmission / Tropical climate / Tropical diseases / Vaccines / Vector-borne diseases / Vectors / World health