Efficient evaluation of influenza mitigation strategies using preventive bandits

Pandemic influenza has the epidemiological potential to kill millions of people. While different preventive measures exist, it remains challenging to implement them in an en effective and efficient way. To improve preventive strategies, it is necessary to thoroughly understand the impact of such strategies on the complex dynamics of influenza epidemics. To this end, epidemiological models provide an essential tool to evaluate such strategies in silico. Epidemiological models are frequently used to assist the decision making concern- ing the mitigation of ongoing epidemics. Therefore, rapidly identifying the most promising preventive strategies is crucial to adequately inform public health. To this end, we formulate the evaluation of prevention strategies as a multi- armed bandit problem. The utility of this novel evaluation method is confirmed through experiments in the context of a pandemic influenza model.