May 1, 2007

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NotesOnR0James Holland Jones Department of Anthropological SciencesStanford UniversityMay 1, 20071 The Basic Reproduction Number in a NutshellThe basic reproduction number,R0, is defined as the expected number of secondary casesproduced by a single (typical) infection in a completely susceptible population. It is importantto note thatR0is a dimensionless number and not a rate, which would have units of time authors incorrectly callR0the basic reproductive rate. We can use the fact thatR0is a dimensionless number to help us in calculating (infectioncontact) (contacttime) (timeinfection)More specifically:R0= c d(1)where is the transmissibility ( , probability of infection given contact between a suscepti-ble and infected individual), cis the average rate of contact between susceptible and infectedindividuals, anddis the duration of The SIR Epidemic ModelIt is pretty clear how we calculateR0given information on transmissibility, contact rates, andthe expected duration of infection.

The basic reproduction number is given by the spectral radius of G. The spectral radius is the also known as the dominant eigenvalue of G. The next generation matrix has a number of desirable properties from a mathematical standpoint. In particular, it is a non-negative matrix and, as such, it is guaranteed that there

  Basics, Properties