Superspreading and the effect of individual variation on disease emergence.

ABSTRACT: Population-level analyses often use average quantities to describe heterogeneous systems, particularly when variation does not arise from identifiable groups. A prominent example, central to our current understanding of epidemic spread, is the basic reproductive number, R(0), which is defined as the mean number of infections caused by an infected individual in a susceptible population. Population estimates of R(0) can obscure considerable individual variation in infectiousness, as highlighted during the global emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) by numerous 'superspreading events' in which certain individuals infected unusually large numbers of secondary cases. For diseases transmitted by non-sexual direct contacts, such as SARS or smallpox, individual variation is diffic

SUBMITTER: Lloyd-Smith JO 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7094981 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature