An Immunization Strategy for Hidden Populations
Abstract Hidden populations, such as injecting drug users (IDUs), sex workers (SWs) and men who have sex with men (MSM), are considered at high risk of contracting and transmitting infectious diseases such as AIDS, gonorrhea, syphilis etc. However, public health interventions to such groups are proh...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2017-06-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-03379-4 |
| _version_ | 1828975019004264448 |
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| author | Saran Chen Xin Lu |
| author_facet | Saran Chen Xin Lu |
| author_sort | Saran Chen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Hidden populations, such as injecting drug users (IDUs), sex workers (SWs) and men who have sex with men (MSM), are considered at high risk of contracting and transmitting infectious diseases such as AIDS, gonorrhea, syphilis etc. However, public health interventions to such groups are prohibited due to strong privacy concerns and lack of global information, which is a necessity for traditional strategies such as targeted immunization and acquaintance immunization. In this study, we introduce an innovative intervention strategy to be used in combination with a sampling approach that is widely used for hidden populations, Respondent-driven Sampling (RDS). The RDS strategy is implemented in two steps: First, RDS is used to estimate the average degree (personal network size) and degree distribution of the target population with sample data. Second, a cut-off threshold is calculated and used to screen the respondents to be immunized. Simulations on model networks and real-world networks reveal that the efficiency of the RDS strategy is close to that of the targeted strategy. As the new strategy can be implemented with the RDS sampling process, it provides a cost-efficient and feasible approach for disease intervention and control for hidden populations. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-14T14:12:22Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6cd080e402f54e5ba2db393703e3aa32 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-14T14:12:22Z |
| publishDate | 2017-06-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj.art-6cd080e402f54e5ba2db393703e3aa322022-12-21T22:58:16ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222017-06-017111010.1038/s41598-017-03379-4An Immunization Strategy for Hidden PopulationsSaran Chen0Xin Lu1College of Information System and Management, National University of Defense TechnologyCollege of Information System and Management, National University of Defense TechnologyAbstract Hidden populations, such as injecting drug users (IDUs), sex workers (SWs) and men who have sex with men (MSM), are considered at high risk of contracting and transmitting infectious diseases such as AIDS, gonorrhea, syphilis etc. However, public health interventions to such groups are prohibited due to strong privacy concerns and lack of global information, which is a necessity for traditional strategies such as targeted immunization and acquaintance immunization. In this study, we introduce an innovative intervention strategy to be used in combination with a sampling approach that is widely used for hidden populations, Respondent-driven Sampling (RDS). The RDS strategy is implemented in two steps: First, RDS is used to estimate the average degree (personal network size) and degree distribution of the target population with sample data. Second, a cut-off threshold is calculated and used to screen the respondents to be immunized. Simulations on model networks and real-world networks reveal that the efficiency of the RDS strategy is close to that of the targeted strategy. As the new strategy can be implemented with the RDS sampling process, it provides a cost-efficient and feasible approach for disease intervention and control for hidden populations.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-03379-4 |
| spellingShingle | Saran Chen Xin Lu An Immunization Strategy for Hidden Populations Scientific Reports |
| title | An Immunization Strategy for Hidden Populations |
| title_full | An Immunization Strategy for Hidden Populations |
| title_fullStr | An Immunization Strategy for Hidden Populations |
| title_full_unstemmed | An Immunization Strategy for Hidden Populations |
| title_short | An Immunization Strategy for Hidden Populations |
| title_sort | immunization strategy for hidden populations |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-03379-4 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT saranchen animmunizationstrategyforhiddenpopulations AT xinlu animmunizationstrategyforhiddenpopulations AT saranchen immunizationstrategyforhiddenpopulations AT xinlu immunizationstrategyforhiddenpopulations |