Complexity of the Basic Reproduction Number (R0)

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Emerg Infect Dis
• Personal Author:
  Delamater, Paul L. ; Street, Erica J. ; Leslie, Timothy F. ; Yang, Y. Tony ; Jacobsen, Kathryn H.
• Description:
  The basic reproduction number (R|), also called the basic reproduction ratio or rate or the basic reproductive rate, is an epidemiologic metric used to describe the contagiousness or transmissibility of infectious agents. R| is affected by numerous biological, sociobehavioral, and environmental factors that govern pathogen transmission and, therefore, is usually estimated with various types of complex mathematical models, which make R| easily misrepresented, misinterpreted, and misapplied. R| is not a biological constant for a pathogen, a rate over time, or a measure of disease severity, and R| cannot be modified through vaccination campaigns. R| is rarely measured directly, and modeled R| values are dependent on model structures and assumptions. Some R| values reported in the scientific literature are likely obsolete. R| must be estimated, reported, and applied with great caution because this basic metric is far from simple.
• Subjects:
  Basic Reproduction Number Disease Outbreaks Disease Transmission, Infectious Humans Models, Theoretical Perspective
• Source:
  Emerg Infect Dis. 25(1):1-4
• Pubmed ID:
  30560777
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC6302597
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Volume:
  25
• Issue:
  1
• Collection(s):
  Emerging Infectious Diseases
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:5db197a3fafb72bf8d655ea86f5d8beecdcab8fed12bb2ff78231b54f7012dec
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/80426/cdc_80426_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 374.24 KB ]