Optimal Resource Allocation for HIV Prevention and Control

When dealing with economically and socially significant infectious diseases, in particular AIDS and tuberculosis, the central problem is to optimally distribute the limited resources among different treatment and prophylaxis programs. The main difficulty in doing so is that while the individual-level effect of these interventions can be determined using controlled trials, their effectiveness as public health interventions cannot be ascertained with certainty. This is due to the fact that affected populations are different not only in terms of the disease transmission dynamics, but also in the efficacy of available instruments given a specific population structure. Identifying the optimal strategy of resource allocation must be based on a (dynamic) model of the underlying medical, biological, and social processes that captures the relevant features of the population.