Constructed charts of vaccination strategies

Abstract

Various vaccination rates are mathematically modeled as if they simply spread from area to next nearest area across a ‘constructed landscape’ of developing countries. A technique that had previously been used to model the spread of diseases effectively models the spread of disease prevention. Multidimensional scaling successfully summarizes complex patterns in vaccination rates in developing countries as a ‘constructed chart’ from ‘functional distances’. Countries that have similar vaccination rates are close together in this constructed chart, and countries that have different rates are far apart, regardless of the physical distance between the countries. A statistically significant ( p < 0.001) chart was made of seven different vaccination rates (diphtheria, polio, measles in adults, measles in infants, tuberculosis in adults, tuberculosis in infants, and total percentage of routine epidemic vaccines financed by government) in 49 developing countries (from Belarus, Belize and Benin to Vietnam, Yemen and Zimbabwe).