Open AccessInvesting in Justice: Ethics, Evidence, and the Eradication Investment Cases for Lymphatic Filariasis and Onchocerciasis
Author(s) -
Theodore C. Bailey,
Maria W. Merritt,
Fabrizio Tediosi
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
american journal of public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.284
H-Index - 264
eISSN - 1541-0048
pISSN - 0090-0036
DOI - 10.2105/ajph.2014.302454
Subject(s) - onchocerciasis , lymphatic filariasis , economic justice , investment (military) , psychological intervention , wuchereria bancrofti , filariasis , environmental health , socioeconomics , medicine , political science , immunology , economics , politics , law , nursing , helminths
It has been suggested that initiatives to eradicate specific communicable diseases need to be informed by eradication investment cases to assess the feasibility, costs, and consequences of eradication compared with elimination or control. A methodological challenge of eradication investment cases is how to account for the ethical importance of the benefits, burdens, and distributions thereof that are salient in people's experiences of the diseases and related interventions but are not assessed in traditional approaches to health and economic evaluation. We have offered a method of ethical analysis grounded in theories of social justice. We have described the method and its philosophical rationale and illustrated its use in application to eradication investment cases for lymphatic filariasis and onchocerciasis, 2 neglected tropical diseases that are candidates for eradication.