Inferring the source of transmission with phylogenetic data.

ABSTRACT: Identifying the source of transmission using pathogen genetic data is complicated by numerous biological, immunological, and behavioral factors. A large source of error arises when there is incomplete or sparse sampling of cases. Unsampled cases may act as either a common source of infection or as an intermediary in a transmission chain for hosts infected with genetically similar pathogens. It is difficult to quantify the probability of common source or intermediate transmission events, which has made it difficult to develop statistical tests to either confirm or deny putative transmission pairs with genetic data. We present a method to incorporate additional information about an infectious disease epidemic, such as incidence and prevalence of infection over time, to inform estimates of th

SUBMITTER: Volz EM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3868546 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature