Targeted Social Distancing Designs for Pandemic Influenza
Year: 2006
Type: article
Abstract: Targeted social distancing to mitigate pandemic influenza can be designed through simulation of influenza's spread within local community social contact networks. We demonstrate this design for a stylized community representative of a small town in the United States. The critical importance of children and teenagers in transmission of influenza is first identified and targeted. For influenza as infectious as 1957-58 Asian flu (=50% infected), closing schools and keeping children and teenagers at home reduced the attack rate by >90%. For more infectious strains, or transmission that is less focused on the young, adults and the work environment must also be targeted. Tailored to specific communities across the world, such design would yield local defenses against a highly virulent strain in the absence of vaccine and antiviral drugs.
Source: Emerging infectious diseases
Authors: Robert J. Glass, Laura M. Glass, Walter E. Beyeler, H. Jason Min
Institutions: Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque Public Schools
Language: English
Subfield: Epidemiology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2146738816