Reframing Optimal Control Problems for Infectious Disease Management in Low-Income Countries

Area of Science:

• Mathematical modeling
• Epidemiology
• Public health

Background:

• Optimal control theory is frequently used for infectious disease management.
• Current models often use monetary terms for intervention and disease burden costs.
• This approach may not fully capture complex public health objectives.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present alternate formulations for optimal control in infectious disease management.
• To incorporate health metrics, budget constraints, and epidemiological targets.
• To explore the sensitivity of optimal control solutions to these new parameters.

Main Methods:

• Utilized optimal control theory with ordinary differential equations.
• Developed new objective functional formulations based on health metrics.
• Applied these formulations to a compartmental cholera model.
• Analyzed the impact of budget constraints and target outcomes.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated that health metrics provide a more direct measure of epidemiological outcomes.
• Showed that incorporating budget constraints and targets refines optimal control strategies.
• Highlighted the sensitivity of optimal solutions to variations in budget and desired targets.
• Identified limitations in comprehensive cost assessment within epidemiological modeling.

Conclusions:

• Alternate optimal control formulations enhance the analysis of infectious disease management strategies.
• Health metrics and resource limitations offer a more realistic framework for optimizing interventions.
• Further research is needed to address the limitations of cost assessment in epidemiology.