Table 1.

Summary of Arguments for Applying Decision Analysis to Vector-borne Disease Control

Challenges in Combating Vector-Borne Diseases	What Decision Analysis Offers
1. The growing burden of malaria and other vector-borne diseases creates a high-stakes environment where bad policy decisions are extremely costly.	By promoting informed, evidence-based policies, decision analysis can improve the allocation of limited resources for reducing the burden of malaria and other vector-borne diseases.
2. Vector-borne disease control involves a multitude of actors at multiple scales.	Decision analysis can provide a focal point for discussions among policy makers and practitioners at various levels.
3. Choosing among different control options requires making difficult tradeoffs among competing health, social, and environmental objectives.	Decision analysis directly identifies competing objectives and helps decision makers to confront tradeoffs.
4. Complicated dynamics, interdependencies, and uncertainties make it difficult to analyze the effects of vector-borne disease control strategies over time.	Sophisticated decision analysis models incorporate multiple layers of detail to reflect the complexity of the vector-borne disease control problem. Simulations and sensitivity analyses allow decision makers to explore possible effects of different strategies over time.
5. Vector-borne diseases involve complex human-environment interactions that necessitate interagency, interdisciplinary analyses and responses.	Decision analysis frameworks can be structured to bring together multiple perspectives and areas of expertise, thus fostering collaboration and dialogue to accurately represent and address vector-borne disease control.