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Expert Review of Pharmacoeconomics & Outcomes Research Volume 2, 2002 - Issue 3
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Review

Cost-effectiveness of alternative strategies to prevent trachomatous blindness

Kevin D Frick Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins University, Department of Economics, Johns Hopkins University, Department of Ophthalmology, 624 N. Broadway, Rm. 606, Baltimore, MD 21205-1901, USA. [email protected]
&
M Arantxa Colchero Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Health Policy and Management, 624 N. Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21205-1901, USA. [email protected]
Pages 219-228 | Published online: 09 Jan 2014

References

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  • ••Presents a clear description of the differentstates associated with trachoma and its complications.
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  • ••Reports on the effects of a community-based randomized trial of a face-washing intervention after a mass treatment campaign with topical antibiotic.
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  • ••Documents a statistically significantimpact of trichiasis on functional status, even prior to having visual impairment.
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  • ••Describes a study to enhance knowledgeabout flies as a vector of trachoma transmission.
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  • •Key article because in the process of describing risk-factors for constant, severe active disease, the authors also describe the risk-factors for complications.
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  • http://www.who.intipbditrachomai ebres98-e.htm.
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  • •This is a reference for the prevalence rates of blindness generally — by region and by disease.
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  • •Second in a set of two papers that set the standard in terms of transparent methods of estimating the global burden of trachoma, except that the pharmacoeconomic outcome measure is not a standard measure.
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  • •Gives a flavor of the Alliance for the Global Elimination of Trachoma meetings. Three reports are online at present.
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  • •One of several recent studies on the efficacy or effectiveness of azithromycin that usefully supplement the limited cost-effectiveness studies.
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  • ••Documents the similar efficacy ofazithromycin and tetracycline in multiple settings.
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  • •This study, among all concerned with the use of azithromycin in mass treatment against trachoma, most strongly suggests a relationship to resistant strains of bacteria.
  • Treadway G. Azithromycin: a new 15- membered macrolide. Jpn I Antibiot 54(Suppl A), 70–76 (2001).
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  • •Concludes that the clinical relevance of the effects of mass treatment against trachoma on other bacterial flora has yet to be determined.
  • Peterson J, Treadway G. Impact of community-based azithromycin treatment of trachoma on carriage and resistance of Streptococcus pneumoniae. Clin. Infect. Dis. 26(1), 248–249 (1998).
  • •This letter should be read in combination with the Leach et al. [29].
  • Bowman RJ, Sillah A, Van Dehn C et al Operational comparison of single-dose azithromycin and topical tetracycline for trachoma. Invest. Ophthalmol Vis. Sc]. 41(13), 4074–4079 (2000).
  • ••Compared azithromycin and tetracyclinein a less rigorously administered setting that attempted to measure effectiveness rather than efficacy Performed a simple cost-effectiveness comparison of using azithromycin generally with using it for only cases of infection with more severe clinical symptoms.
  • Unlu K, Aksunger A, Soker S, Karaca C, Bilek K. Prospective evaluation of the argon laser treatment of trachomatous trichiasis. Jpn I Ophthalmol. 44(6), 677–679 (2000).
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  • •Documents the recurrence rate and severe recurrence rate of trichiasis after surgery over the longest time period to date.
  • Pruss A, Mariotti SR Preventing trachoma through environmental sanitation: a review of the evidence base. Bull. World Health Organ. 78(2), 258–266 (2000).
  • •Thoroughly reviews the environmental component of the SAFE strategy.
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  • ••The only long-term cost-effectivenessstudy in this area.
  • Frick KD, Lietman TM, Holm SO, Jha HC, Chaudhary JS, Bhatta RC. Cost-effectiveness of trachoma control measures: comparing targeted household treatment and mass treatment of children. Bull. World Health Organ. 79(3), 201–207 (2001).
  • ••The only published cost-effectivenesscomparison of targeted and mass treatment of trachoma.
  • Bowman RJ, Soma OS, Alexander N et al. Should trichiasis surgery be offered in the village? A community randomised trial of village vs. health centre-based surgery. 7i-op. Med. Int. Health 5 (8), 528–533 (2000).
  • Frick KD, Keuffel EL, Bowman RJ. Epidemiological, demographic, and economic analyses: measurement of the value of trichiasis surgery in The Gambia. Ophthalmic Epidemiol 8(2-3), 191–201 (2001).
  • ••The only study to date projecting theeconomic value of the productivity effect of using trichiasis surgery to avert blindness.
  • Burton MJ, Frick KD, Bailey RL, Bowman RJC. Azithromycin for the treatment and control of trachoma. Expert Opin. Pharmacother. 3(2), 113–120 (2002).
  • •Contains one supplemental cost-effectiveness analysis to the earlier results presented by Bowman et al. [34] on the cost-effectiveness of giving azithromycin only to those with more severe active disease.
  • Schemann JP, Sacko D. [Strategies to control trachoma]. Sante 8(2), 150–156 (1998).
  • ••The only cost of trachomatous blindnessavoidance study from Mali.
  • Frick KD, West SK. The SAFE strategy for trachoma control: planning a cost-effectiveness analysis of the antibiotic component and beyond. Ophthalmic Epidemiol 8(4), 205–214 (2001).
  • •Lays out a framework for future cost-effectiveness work in this area.
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  • •One of the more sophisticated mathematical models of trachoma reinfection to date and suggests the frequency of azithromycin mass treatment administration necessary to eliminate active disease.
  • Report of the Second Meeting of the WHO Alliance for the Global Elimination of Trachoma. Geneva, Switzerland, World Health Organization. (unpublished document WHO/PBUGET/98.2) (1998).
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  • •One of several recent studies of ways to distribute azithromycin for trachoma control.
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  • •One of several recent effectiveness studies that are useful as a supplement to the limited cost-effectiveness studies.
  • Laming AC, Currie BJ, DiFrancesco M, Taylor HR, Mathews JD. A targeted, single-dose azithromycin strategy for trachoma. Med. J. Aust. 172 (4), 163–166 (2000).
  • •One of several recent effectiveness studies that are useful as a supplement to the limited cost-effectiveness studies.
  • Whitty CJ, Glasgow KW, Sadiq ST, Mabey DC, Bailey R. Impact of community-based mass treatment for trachoma with oral azithromycin on general morbidity in Gambian children. Fenian: Infect. Dis. 18(11), 955–8 (1999).
  • •One of several recent effectiveness studies that are useful as a supplement to the limited cost-effectiveness studies.

Websites

  • Alliance for the Global Elimination of blinding Trachoma. Description of the disease, map, prevalence, results of specific interventions in some countries, objectives of the Global Alliance of Trachoma Control www.who.int/pbd/trachoma/ss/whoget/ sld001.htm
  • International Trachoma Initiative www.trachoma.org/
  • Alliance for the Global Elimination of blinding Trachoma reports, resolutions, simplified trachoma grading including images (Program of the Prevention of Blindness), countries www.who.intipbd/ trachoma/pressrel.htm

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