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This would depend entirely on the spatial relationship of trachoma amongst the different islands. If there was strong spatial correlation between islands it may be possible to use MBG, however this would need to be reviewed on a case-by-cas...
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When there is large population movement within an EU, one of the challenges for the models is trying to incorporate more assumptions and to account for more variation than normal, and this leads to a lot of uncertainty. It may be possible to accou...
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MBG has not yet been used to estimate prevalence in inaccessible EUs, however, it is theoretically possible to do this when there are enough existing data in nearby EUs to estimate trachoma prevalence in the area of interest. There would need to b...
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Past research in both trachoma and other neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), such as soil-transmitted helminthiases and lymphatic filariasis, has shown that MBG requires fewer clusters compared to the standard survey design. This is because MBG ta...
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Permission to use country-specific prevalence data is needed, with access provided to the individual-level data contained in all relevant datasets. The surveys must have been supported by the Global Trachoma Mapping Project (GTMP) and/or Tropical ...
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To date, MBG has been used to create a geostatistical survey design to quantify the likelihood that TT prevalence at EU-level is below the TT elimination threshold (See publications folder for relevant papers supporting this). It has also been use...
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No, surveys will still be required in most cases as some data are always needed to run the models. The more data that are available, the better the predictive ability of the model.
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Setting the PBT threshold is a decision that is both political and technical, as it is a question about how much uncertainty the global trachoma community is willing to tolerate. A special advisory group (SAG) is in the process of being created, l...
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The PBT is the probability of being below the elimination threshold: a prevalence of less than 5% for trachomatous inflammation—follicular (TF), or less than 0.2% for trachomatous trichiasis (TT). As PBT values get closer to 100% or 0%, we c...
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MBG uses a model-based approach, whereas the current Tropical Data method uses a design-based approach, to estimate trachoma prevalence. The current design-based approach uses prevalence data and the population census from a single evaluation unit...