Modeling the dynamics of incentives in community drug distribution programs.

Neglected tropical disease (NTD) control programs rely on an army of volunteers, or community drug distributors (CDDs), to distribute preventative drug packages through community and school-based platforms. Both monetary and non-monetary incentives are frequently provided to CDDs, although the impact on program performance is not well documented or understood. This article presents a descriptive framework to help visualize the dynamics of incentives as part of mass drug administration (MDA) campaigns and to guide future research in this area.

Predictive vs. empiric assessment of schistosomiasis: implications for treatment projections in Ghana.

Background: Mapping the distribution of schistosomiasis is essential to determine where control programs should operate, but because it is impractical to assess infection prevalence in every potentially endemic community, model-based geostatistics (MBG) is increasingly being used to predict prevalence and determine intervention strategies.

Methodology/principal Findings: To assess the accuracy of MBG predictions for Schistosoma haematobium infection in Ghana, school surveys were evaluated at 79 sites to yield empiric prevalence values that could be compared with values derived from recently published MBG predictions. Based on these findings schools were categorized according to WHO guidelines so that practical implications of any differences could be determined.