Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors - Applications - Basic Reproduction Number

Basic Reproduction Number

See Basic reproduction number

The basic reproduction number is a fundamental number in the study of how infectious diseases spread. If one infectious person is put into a population of completely susceptible people, then is the average number of people that one infectious person will infect. The generation time of an infection is the time, from one person becoming infected to the next person becoming infected. In a heterogenous population, the next generation matrix defines how many people in the population will become infected after time has passed. is then the largest eigenvalue of the next generation matrix.

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