Decision trees and fuzzy logic: a comparison of models for the selection of measles vaccination strategies in Brazil

In 1997, health authorities of the state of São Paulo, Brazil designed a vaccination campaign against measles based on a decision model that utilized fuzzy logic. The chosen mass vaccination strategy was implemented and changed the natural course of the epidemic in that state. We have built a model using a decision tree and compare it to the fuzzy logic model. Using essentially the same set of assumptions about this problem, we contrast the two approaches. The models identify the same strategy as being the best one, but exhibit differences in the ranking of the remaining strategies.

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