Infectious Disease ModelingModels to the rescue: Understanding disease dynamics to inform disease management
Aniruddha Belsare
(Assistant Professor, Auburn University College of Forestry, Wildlife and Environment)
Mathematical analysis and modeling are critical to developing a better understanding of complex disease systems.
Over the past century, mathematical and computational approaches have increasingly informed disease management the world over. But disease modeling truly came to the fore during the first two decades of the 21st century as the world was impacted by a series of infectious disease outbreaks such as SARS (2003), H1N1 (2009), MERS (2012), Ebola (2014), and of course, CoVID-19 (2019-?). Governments and policymakers across the globe are placing greater trust in modeling than before, but modelers and their models have also received considerable criticism mostly due to misrepresentation and misunderstanding.
Objectifs pédagogiques
- Understand the role of disease models in today's world
- Achieve a basic understanding of compartmental models of disease spread
- Clearly define terms relevant to infectious disease modeling