Cost of intensive routine control and incremental cost of insecticide-treated curtain deployment in a setting with low Aedes aegypti infestation.

Introduction: Information regarding the cost of implementing insecticide-treated curtains (ITCs) is scarce. Therefore, we evaluated the ITC implementation cost, in addition to the costs of intensive conventional routine activities of the Aedes control program in the city of Guantanamo, Cuba.

Methods: A cost-analysis study was conducted from the perspective of the Aedes control program, nested in an ITC effectiveness trial, during 2009-2010.

Incremental cost of implementing residual insecticide treatment with delthametrine on top of intensive routine Aedes aegypti control.

Objective: Information on the cost of implementing residual insecticide treatment (RIT) for Aedes control is scarce. We evaluated the incremental cost on top of intensive conventional routine activities of the Aedes control programme (ACP) in the city of Santiago de Cuba, Cuba.

Methods: We conducted the cost analysis study in 2011-2012, from the perspective of the ACP.

No effect of insecticide treated curtain deployment on aedes infestation in a cluster randomized trial in a setting of low dengue transmission in Guantanamo, Cuba.

Objective & Methodology: The current study evaluated the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of Insecticide Treated Curtain (ITC) deployment for reducing dengue vector infestation levels in the Cuban context with intensive routine control activities. A cluster randomized controlled trial took place in Guantanamo city, east Cuba. Twelve neighborhoods (about 500 households each) were selected among the ones with the highest Aedes infestation levels in the previous two years, and were randomly allocated to the intervention and control arms.

Costs of dengue prevention and incremental cost of dengue outbreak control in Guantanamo, Cuba.

Objective: To assess the economic cost of routine Aedes aegypti control in an at-risk environment without dengue endemicity and the incremental costs incurred during a sporadic outbreak.

Methods: The study was conducted in 2006 in the city of Guantanamo, Cuba. We took a societal perspective to calculate costs in months without dengue transmission (January-July) and during an outbreak (August-December).

The cost of routine Aedes aegypti control and of insecticide-treated curtain implementation.

Insecticide-treated curtains (ITCs) are promoted for controlling the Dengue vector Aedes aegypti. We assessed the cost of the routine Aedes control program (RACP) and the cost of ITC implementation through the RACP and health committees in Venezuela and through health volunteers in Thailand. The yearly cost of the RACP per household amounted to US$2.

Evaluation of the effectiveness of insecticide treated materials for household level dengue vector control.

Objective: To assess the operational effectiveness of long-lasting insecticide treated materials (ITMs), when used at household level, for the control of Aedes aegypti in moderately infested urban and suburban areas.

Methods: In an intervention study, ITMs consisting of curtains and water jar-covers (made from PermaNet) were distributed under routine field conditions in 10 clusters (5 urban and 5 suburban), with over 4000 houses, in Trujillo, Venezuela. Impact of the interventions were determined by comparing pre-and post-intervention measures of the Breteau index (BI, number of positive containers/100 houses) and pupae per person index (PPI), and by comparison with indices from untreated areas of the same municipalities.

Evidence on impact of community-based environmental management on dengue transmission in Santiago de Cuba.

During the dengue outbreak that struck Santiago de Cuba in 2006-2007, we conducted an observational study in the Mariana Grajales district, the former setting of a community trial for Aedes aegypti control. In the trial, community working groups (CWG) had been created in 29 randomly selected intervention house blocks, and routine vector control activities alone were conducted in the remaining 30 control blocks. The CWG elaborated and implemented with the population plans and activities to reduce Aedes infestation.

Cost-effectiveness of a community-based approach intertwined with a vertical Aedes control program.

We compared in a 5-year intervention study the cost-effectiveness of community-based environmental management intertwined with routine vertical Aedes control and of routine vertical control only. At baseline (year 2000), Aedes infestation levels and economic costs for vector control were comparable in intervention and control areas (house index, 2.23% versus 2.

The unbearable lightness of technocratic efforts at dengue control.

Objective: To identify key elements that should provide an added value and assure sustainable effects of the deployment of technical tools for Aedes aegypti control.

Methods: An observational study was conducted between April 2001 and March 2002 in 30 blocks (1574 houses) in the central zone of Guantanamo city. A trial that combined two complementary technical interventions, the distribution of new ground level water tanks and the intensive use of insecticide, was nested in May 2001.

[Validation of an ELISA assay for the quantification of antibodies against Haemophilus influenzae type b capsular polysaccharide].

The validation study of an ELISA assay -internationally accepted for this purpose- was conducted aimed at having a method for the quantification of antibodies against Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) capsular polysaccharide in the clinical trials used to prove the immunogenicity of a new conjugated vaccine composed of a synthetic antigen. The validation was carried out in the National Haemophilus Reference Laboratory, in "Pedro Kouri" Institute of Tropical Medicine, Havana, Cuba. A protocol was designed, in which the determination of accuracy, exactness, linearity and limit of the detection of the assay were considered.

Phase I clinical evaluation of a synthetic oligosaccharide-protein conjugate vaccine against Haemophilus influenzae type b in human adult volunteers.

Since 1989, we have been involved in the development of a vaccine against Haemophilus influenzae type b. The new vaccine is based on the conjugation of synthetic oligosaccharides to tetanus toxoid. Our main goals have been (i) to verify the feasibility of using the synthetic antigen and (ii) to search for new production alternatives for this important infant vaccine.

A synthetic conjugate polysaccharide vaccine against Haemophilus influenzae type b.

Glycoconjugate vaccines provide effective prophylaxis against bacterial infections. To date, however, no commercial vaccine has been available in which the key carbohydrate antigens are produced synthetically. We describe the large-scale synthesis, pharmaceutical development, and clinical evaluation of a conjugate vaccine composed of a synthetic capsular polysaccharide antigen of Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib).