A related extension to this framework would involve applying a monetary constraint to a loss-of-life cost function. If we were to assume p i and p r to be, respectively, the probabilities of mortality associated with untreated infected individuals and the removal of susceptibles, and define d to be the monetary resources available for the intervention, then within this framework it is possible to find the intervention that minimizes the total loss-of-life subject to the total spending constraint d. Similarly, it would be possible to optimize with respect to some selective criterion in order to preserve vaccine efficacy rather than select unnecessarily for drug-resistant pathogens. Also note the possibility of calculating policies based on minimization of some quantile of the realized cost rather than the mean cost. This would lead to minimization of costs associated with worst case scenarios, rather than that associated with the average case scenario. These and other alternative formulations of the underlying optimization problem can be easily accommodated in the framework presented here.