Dataset Information

Economic Evaluation of Individual School Closure Strategies: The Hong Kong 2009 H1N1 Pandemic.

ABSTRACT:

Background

School closures as a means of containing the spread of disease have received considerable attention from the public health community. Although they have been implemented during previous pandemics, the epidemiological and economic effects of the closure of individual schools remain unclear.

Methodology

This study used data from the 2009 H1N1 pandemic in Hong Kong to develop a simulation model of an influenza pandemic with a localised population structure to provide scientific justifications for and economic evaluations of individual-level school closure strategies.

Findings

The estimated cost of the study's baseline scenario was USD330 million. We found that the individual school closure strategies that involved all types of schools and those that used a lower threshold to trigger school closures had the best performance. The best scenario resulted in an 80% decrease in the number of cases (i.e., prevention of about 830,000 cases), and the cost per case prevented by this intervention was USD1,145; thus, the total cost was USD1.28 billion.

Conclusion

This study predicts the effects of individual school closure strategies on the 2009 H1N1 pandemic in Hong Kong. Further research could determine optimal strategies that combine various system-wide and district-wide school closures with individual school triggers across types of schools. The effects of different closure triggers at different phases of a pandemic should also be examined.

SUBMITTER: Wong ZS

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4731466 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Economic Evaluation of Individual School Closure Strategies: The Hong Kong 2009 H1N1 Pandemic.

Wong Zoie Shui-Yee ZS Wong Zoie Shui-Yee ZS Goldsman David D Tsui Kwok-Leung KL

PloS one 20160128 1

<h4>Background</h4>School closures as a means of containing the spread of disease have received considerable attention from the public health community. Although they have been implemented during previous pandemics, the epidemiological and economic effects of the closure of individual schools remain unclear.<h4>Methodology</h4>This study used data from the 2009 H1N1 pandemic in Hong Kong to develop a simulation model of an influenza pandemic with a localised population structure to provide scien ...[more]

PMID: 26820982

Similar Datasets

Project description:BACKGROUND:Serial cross-sectional data on antibody levels to the 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza A virus from a population can be used to estimate the infection attack rates and immunity against future infection in the community. METHODS:From April through December 2009, we obtained 12,217 serum specimens from blood donors (aged 16-59 years), 2520 specimens from hospital outpatients (aged 5-59 years), and 917 specimens from subjects involved in a community pediatric cohort study (aged 5-14 years). We estimated infection attack rates by comparing the proportions of specimens with antibody titers ? 1:40 by viral microneutralization before and after the first wave of the pandemic. Estimates were validated using paired serum samples from 324 individuals that spanned the first wave. Combining these estimates with epidemiologic surveillance data, we calculated the proportion of infections that led to hospitalization, admission to the intensive care unit (ICU), and death. RESULTS:We found that 3.3% and 14% of persons aged 5-59 years had antibody titers ? 1:40 before and after the first wave, respectively. The overall attack rate was 10.7%, with age stratification as follows: 43.4% in persons aged 5-14 years, 15.8% in persons aged 15-19 years, 11.8% in persons aged 20-29 years, and 4%-4.6% in persons aged 30-59 years. Case-hospitalization rates were 0.47%-0.87% among persons aged 5-59 years. Case-ICU rates were 7.9 cases per 100,000 infections in persons aged 5-14 years and 75 cases per 100,000 infections in persons aged 50-59 years, respectively. Case-fatality rates were 0.4 cases per 100,000 infections in persons aged 5-14 years and 26.5 cases per 100,000 infections in persons aged 50-59 years, respectively. CONCLUSIONS:Almost half of all school-aged children in Hong Kong were infected during the first wave. Compared with school children aged 5-14 years, older adults aged 50-59 years had 9.5 and 66 times higher risks of ICU admission and death if infected, respectively.

Dataset Information

Economic Evaluation of Individual School Closure Strategies: The Hong Kong 2009 H1N1 Pandemic.

Background

Methodology

Findings

Conclusion

Publications

Economic Evaluation of Individual School Closure Strategies: The Hong Kong 2009 H1N1 Pandemic.

Similar Datasets

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