Effective Vaccination Policies

Abstract

We present a framework for modeling the spread of pathogens throughout a population and generating policies that minimize the impact of those pathogens on the population. This framework is used to study the spread of human viruses between cities via airplane travel. It combines agent-based simulation, mathematical analysis, and an Evolutionary Algorithm (EA) optimizer. The goal of this study is to develop tools that determine the optimal distribution of a vaccine supply in the model. Using plausible benchmark vaccine allocation policies of uniform and proportional distribution, we compared their effectiveness to policies found by the EA. We then designed and tested a new, more effective policy which increased the importance of vaccinating smaller cities that are flown to more often. This "importance factor" was validated using U.S. influenza data from the last four years.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 31, 2010
Accession Number
ADA556856

Entities

People

  • L. Billings
  • Leslie M. Shaw
  • P. Maxim
  • W. Spears

Organizations

  • University of Wyoming

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Agent-Based Simulations
  • Aircrafts
  • Algorithms
  • California
  • Data Mining
  • Differential Equations
  • Diseases And Disorders
  • Equations
  • Evolutionary Algorithms
  • Health
  • Influenza
  • Information Science
  • Mathematical Analysis
  • Simulations
  • United States
  • Vaccination
  • Vaccines

Readers

  • Defense Acquisition Program Management
  • Infectious Disease/Epidemiology
  • Operations Research

Technology Areas

  • Biotechnology