Mathematical and Statistical Estimation Approaches in Epidemiology

This book is intended as a primary resource for graduate students and researchers working in the field of infectious disease epidemiology. This collection of contributions presents deterministic and stochastic approaches for epidemic modelling and statistical inference of epidemiological parameters including the real time assessment of the transmission potential of infectious diseases, issues related to the sensitivity of model assumptions, the use of historical archives as valuable sources of epidemiological information, modeling of vaccination programs and relapse, statistical challenges in bio surveillance, approaches for the spatial and temporal analysis of disease time series, quantification of parameter uncertainty and methodologies for sensitivity analysis. Methods and tools are illustrated with simulated and real datasets such as the 1918 influenza pandemic in Winnipeg, Canada, the 1968 influenza pandemic in US cities, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), the 2005 Marburg fever outbreak in Angola, rubella epidemics in Peru, rotavirus in Mexico and pneumococcal disease in Australia.

Gerardo Chowell is an associate professor and a Second Century Initiative Scholar (2CI) in the School of Public Health at Georgia State University in Atlanta. His research program includes the development and application of quantitative approaches for understanding the transmission dynamics and control of infectious diseases including influenza, Ebola, and dengue fever. His work has appeared in high-impact journals including The New England Journal of Medicine, PLOS Medicine, and BMC Medicine, and has been cited by major media outlets including the Washington Post and TIME magazine.

James (Mac) Hyman has developed and analyzed mathematical?models for the transmission of HIV/AIDs, influenza, malaria, dengue fever, chikungunya, and infections. ?His current focus is to identify approaches where these models can help public health workers be more effective in mitigating the impact of emerging diseases. ?He was a research scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory for over thirty years, is a past president of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), ?and now holds the Phillips?Distinguished Chair in Mathematics at Tulane?University.