title: Investing in justice: ethics, evidence, and the eradication investment cases for lymphatic filariasis and onchocerciasis.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Theodore C. Bailey is with the Division of Infectious Diseases, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD, and the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, Baltimore. Maria W. Merritt is with the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics and the Department of International Health, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore. Fabrizio Tediosi is with the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Theodore C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Bailey
authors.forename: Maria W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Merritt
authors.forename: Fabrizio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tediosi
mesh_terms: D060740:Disease Eradication / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D004605:Elephantiasis, Filarial / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D026689:Ethical Analysis; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D009855:Onchocerciasis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D062486:Public Health Surveillance; D012935:Social Justice