The tool-kit will enable users to take account of epidemiological indicators of disease burden, the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of interventions, available services, expert and lay knowledge, and ethical, social and legal implications, and will provide guidance on relevant strategic processes.
We analyse the database of cases and their contacts identified for the purposes of contact tracing in relation to both the contact tracing burden and effectiveness.
In a time of severe financial constraints and in the absence of strong data on influenza burden and effectiveness of vaccination, it is difficult for many EU/EEA countries to prioritise influenza prevention over other perceived more pressing health issues.
The benefits, risks, burdens and effectiveness of a new intervention must be tested against those of the best proven intervention(s), except in the following circumstances: Where no proven intervention exists, the use of placebo, or no intervention, is acceptable.
FFQ proponents argue their utility on grounds of low participant burden, cost-effectiveness and administrative ease [ 12].
New vaccines require greater investments than in the past; criteria such as preventable burden, cost-effectiveness, and sustainability are key to systematic, evidence-based vaccine introductions (11, 12 ).
According to the Declaration of Helskinki [ 39]: "The benefits, risks, burdens and effectiveness of the new method should be tested against those of the best current prophylactic, diagnostic and therapeutic methods".
However, article 29 of the Helsinki Declaration states that ' benefits, risks, burdens and effectiveness of a new method should be tested against those of the best current prophylactic 'interventions [ 15].
Examples of criteria are the magnitude of a health problem, the likelihood of reducing disease burden, cost-effectiveness, the present level of knowledge, current resource flows, the degree of equitability, sustainability, ethical aspects and local research capacity, but there are many more possibilities.
The 'standard of care' debate has continued since the MTCT prevention trials and has prompted the inclusion of paragraph 29 in the Declaration of Helsinki: the benefits, risks, burdens, and effectiveness of a new method should be tested against those of the best current prophylactic, diagnostic, and therapeutic method.
