Abstract Epidemic spreading is a widely studied process due to its importance and possibly grave consequences for society. While the classical context of epidemic refers pathogens transmitted among humans or animals, it straightforward apply similar ideas spread information (e.g., rumor) computer viruses. This paper addresses question how optimally select nodes monitoring in network timestamped...

In this paper we first introduce the general stochastic epidemic model for the spread of infectious diseases. Then we give methods for inferring model parameters such as the basic reproduction number R0 and vaccination coverage vc assuming different types of data from an outbreak such as final outbreak details and temporal data or observations from an ongoing outbreak. Both individual heterogen...

The Ebola virus, belonging to the family of Filoviruses was first recognized in 1976 when it caused concurrent outbreaks in Yambuku in the Demcratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and in the town of Nzara in Sudan. Both countries share borders with Uganda. A total of 425 cases and 224 deaths attributed to Ebola haemorrhagic Fever (EHF) were recorded in Uganda in 2000/01. Although there was a delayed ...

The potentially catastrophic impact of a bioterrorist attack makes developing effective detection methods essential for public health. In the case of anthrax attack, a delay of hours in making a right decision can lead to hundreds of lives lost. Current detection methods trade off reliability of alarms for early detection of outbreaks. The performance of these methods can be improved by modern ...

BACKGROUND Time series methods are commonly used to detect disease outbreak signatures (e.g., signals due to influenza outbreaks and anthrax attacks) from varying respiratory-related diagnostic or syndromic data sources. Typically this involves two components: (i) Using time series methods to model the baseline background distribution (the time series process that is assumed to contain no outbr...

BACKGROUND An increasing number of methods are being developed for the early detection of infectious disease outbreaks which could be naturally occurring or as a result of bioterrorism; however, no standardised framework for examining the usefulness of various outbreak detection methods exists. To promote comparability between studies, it is essential that standardised methods are developed for...

In April-May 2001 an outbreak of dengue fever occurred in two suburbs in Townsville, north Queensland. This was the first outbreak in the Townsville region since a very large outbreak in 1992-1993. Notification delays resulted in late detection of the outbreak. Once recognised, control measures were implemented and rapid control was achieved. Dengue serotype 2 was the causative virus and 9 case...

Background. Dengue outbreaks are occurring with increasing frequency and intensity. Evidence-based epidemic preparedness and effective response are now a matter of urgency. Therefore, we have analysed national and municipal dengue outbreak response plans. Methods. Thirteen country plans from Asia, Latin America and Australia, and one international plan were obtained from the World Health Organi...

BACKGROUND Giardia is not endemic in Norway, and more than 90% of reported cases acquire the infection abroad. In late October 2004, an increase in laboratory confirmed cases of giardiasis was reported in the city of Bergen. An investigation was started to determine the source and extent of the outbreak in order to implement control measures. METHODS Cases were identified through the laborato...

BACKGROUND The sensitivity and specificity of two in-house MAC-ELISA assays were tested and compared with the performance of commercially-available CTK lateral flow rapid test and EUROIMMUN IFA assays for the detection of anti-Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) IgM. Each MAC-ELISA assay used a whole virus-based antigen derived from genetically distinct CHIKV strains involved in two chikungunya disease o...