Alternative graphical displays for the monitoring of epidemic outbreaks, with application to COVID-19 mortality.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Classic epidemic curves - counts of daily events or cumulative events over time -emphasise temporal changes in the growth or size of epidemic outbreaks. Like any graph, these curves have limitations: they are impractical for comparisons of large and small outbreaks or of asynchronous outbreaks, and they do not display the relative growth rate of the epidemic. Our aim was to propose two additional graphical displays for the monitoring of epidemic outbreaks that overcome these limitations.

Methods

The first graph shows the growth of the epidemic as a function of its size; specifically, the logarithm of new cases on a given day, N(t), is plotted against the logarithm of cumulative cases C(t). Logarithm transformations facilitate comparisons of outbreaks of different

SUBMITTER: Perneger T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7537983 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature