Year: 2014
Type: review
Abstract: The complex and unprecedented Ebola epidemic ongoing in West Africa has highlighted the need to review the epidemiological characteristics of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) as well as our current understanding of the transmission dynamics and the effect of control interventions against Ebola transmission. Here we review key epidemiological data from past Ebola outbreaks and carry out a comparative review of mathematical models of the spread and control of Ebola in the context of past outbreaks and the ongoing epidemic in West Africa. We show that mathematical modeling offers useful insights into the risk of a major epidemic of EVD and the assessment of the impact of basic public health measures on disease spread. We also discuss the critical need to collect detailed epidemiological data in real-time during the course of an ongoing epidemic, carry out further studies to estimate the effectiveness of interventions during past outbreaks and the ongoing epidemic, and develop large-scale modeling studies to study the spread and control of viral hemorrhagic fevers in the context of the highly heterogeneous economic reality of African countries.
Source: BMC Medicine
Authors: Gerardo Chowell, Hiroshi Nishiura
Language: English
Subfield: Infectious Diseases
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $4,190
Funders: National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Heiwa Nakajima Foundation, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, University of Tokyo, National Institutes of Health, Directorate for Biological Sciences, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Fogarty International Center
Awards: Quantifying the transmission dynamics using illness onset data, US-UK EEID Collab: Risks of Animal and Plant Infectious Diseases Through Trade (RAPID trade), G6549055387, III: Small: Data Management for Real-Time Data Driven Epidemic Spread Simulations, G8427759382, US-UK Collab: Risks of Animal and Plant Infectious Diseases through Trade (RAPID Trade)
OpenAlex ID: W2135333105