Total operational costs to monitor drug efficacy
For each simulated survey, we calculated the total operational costs in terms of (i) the cost of consumables to collect and process samples, (ii) the cost of a single mobile field team comprised of one nurse and three laboratory technicians (including salary and lodging), and (iii) the cost of transport, including car rental, salary of the driver, and gasoline. We assumed that a working day consists of 8 working hours, and that the daily salary of one team was 80 US$ (4 per diems of 22.5 US$) and that the daily cost for transport was 90 US$. Second, we assumed that the team collected samples in the morning (8:00–12:00), and that all collected samples were processed in the afternoon (13:00–17:00). Complete analysis of all samples on the same day implies that the number of samples that can be collected daily is limited, and that this number will vary across FEC methods, phase of the trial (less time for egg counting is required in follow-up samples) and endemicity (more time for egg counting is required in highly endemic areas). Note that we do not consider costs for the establishment and maintenance of laboratory infrastructure. We further assumed that all work takes place on regular working days, that the team does not take any breaks during processing, and that all samples are collected from a single school/community without loss to follow-up. All cost calculations were based on the itemized cost-assessment described above. Technical details on how the total costs were calculated can be found in 