PhD Defense: Evaluating Vaccines in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

PhD Defense of Rita Jo Chatila Reyburn

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The continued high burden of communicable disease globally underlines the importance of vaccines in world health.  The ever-growing range and complexity of vaccines that can meet this challenge demand reliable evidence of vaccine efficacy and effectiveness.

Such evidence is often derived from studies in high-income settings but extrapolation of efficacy and especially effectiveness of vaccines to low- and middle-income countries is often unreliable due to the many differences that exist between rich and poor worlds. However, such evidence is critically needed in resource poor settings where disease burdens are high and vaccine programs have to compete for scarce resources.
Evaluation of vaccine impact in resource poor settings is challenged by a number of factors including accuracy of information systems, availability and quality of laboratory support and rapid changes in use of health services. Cost, population coverage and dosing schedules are ongoing challenges in resource poor countries.
This thesis address these issues and contribute to the growing body of knowledge of how best to design, implement and evaluate vaccine programs in resource poor countries using routine administrative data.

Start date and time
End date and time
Location
PhD candidate
Rita Jo Chatila Reyburn
Dissertation
Evaluating Vaccines in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
PhD supervisor(s)
prof. dr. L.J. Bont
prof. F. Russell
Co-supervisor(s)
dr. L.E. Franzel
dr. T.T.G. Huong