Title: Brief Encounters: Social Contacts and the Transmission of Disease
Speaker: Jonathan M. Read, University of Warwick
Date: March 26, 2007 12:00 - 1:30 pm
Location: DIMACS Center, CoRE Bldg, Room 431, Rutgers University, Busch Campus, Piscataway, NJ
Abstract:
The threat of new or emerging diseases, such as avian influenza, has prompted many researchers to construct detailed predictive models of infectious disease transmission between humans in order to advise healthcare policy. At the heart of many of these models, however, are crude assumptions regarding the mixing and contact rates between individuals. Here, I will present the results from a diary-based contact survey which describes how often individuals encountered others, as well as the level of intimacy and the social context of the encounter. Simulations demonstrate the important characteristics of this data for transmission of infection.
see: DIMACS Computational and Mathematical Epidemiology Seminar Series 2006 - 2007