• FluTrackers.com Inc. does not provide medical advice. Information on this web site is collected from various internet resources, and the FluTrackers board of directors makes no warranty to the safety, efficacy, correctness or completeness of the information posted on this site by any author or poster. The information collated here is for instructional and/or discussion purposes only and is NOT intended to diagnose or treat any disease, illness, or other medical condition. Every individual reader or poster should seek advice from their personal physician/healthcare practitioner before considering or using any interventions that are discussed on this website. By continuing to access this website you agree to consult your personal physican before using any interventions posted on this website, and you agree to hold harmless FluTrackers.com Inc., the board of directors, the members, and all authors and posters for any effects from use of any medication, supplement, vitamin or other substance, device, intervention, etc. mentioned in posts on this website, or other internet venues referenced in posts on this website.
  • We are not asking for any donations. Do not donate to any entity who says they are raising funds for us.

A statistical method utilizing information of imported cases to estimate the transmissibility for an influenza pandemic

tetano

Editor, Senior Moderator
BMC Med Res Methodol. 2017 Feb 21;17(1):31. doi: 10.1186/s12874-017-0300-1.
[h=1]A statistical method utilizing information of imported cases to estimate the transmissibility for an influenza pandemic.[/h] Chong KC[SUP]1,[/SUP][SUP]2[/SUP], Zee BC[SUP]1,[/SUP][SUP]2[/SUP], Wang MH[SUP]3,[/SUP][SUP]4[/SUP].
[h=3]Author information[/h]

[h=3]Abstract[/h] [h=4]BACKGROUND:[/h] In a new influenza pandemic, travel data such as arrival times of cases seeded by the originating country can be regarded as a combination of the epidemic size and the mobility networks of infections connecting the originating country with other regions. It can be a complete and timely source for estimating the basic reproduction number (R [SUB]0[/SUB] ), a key indicator of disease transmissibility.
[h=4]METHOD:[/h] In this study, we developed a likelihood-based method using arrival times of infected cases in different countries to estimate R [SUB]0[/SUB] for influenza pandemics. A simulation was conducted to assess the performance of the proposed method. We further applied the method to the outbreak of the influenza pandemic A/H1N1 in Mexico.
[h=4]RESULTS:[/h] In the numerical application, the estimated R [SUB]0[/SUB] was equal to 1.69 with a 95% confidence interval (1.65, 1.73). For the simulation results, the estimations were robust to the decline of travel rate and other parameter assumptions. Nevertheless, the estimates were moderately sensitive to the assumption of infectious duration. Generally, the findings were in line with other relevant studies.
[h=4]CONCLUSIONS:[/h] Our approach as well as the estimate is potential to assist officials in planning control and prevention measures. Improved coordination to streamline or even centralize surveillance of imported cases among countries will thus be beneficial to public health.


[h=4]KEYWORDS:[/h] Basic reproduction number; Epidemic models; Influenza pandemic; SIR model; Travel data

PMID: 28222682 DOI: 10.1186/s12874-017-0300-1
[PubMed - in process] Free full text
 
Back
Top Bottom