© 1980 Oxford University Press
research-article |
On the Use of Simple Analytic Mathematical Models of Communicable Diseases
* This work was done while the author was a Research Fellow in the Division of Applied Sciences, Harvard University
Briscoe J [present address: Ministério das Obras Publicas, CP 268, Maputo, Mozambique]. On the use of simple analytic mathematical models of communicable diseases. International Journal of Epidemiology 1980, 9: 265270.
Complex simulation models of diseases are becoming widely used by researchers and planners. This paper shows how simple analytic models can explain some otherwise inexplicable aspects of the behaviour of both these complex models and of the diseases in the real world. A system for grouping communicable diseases on the basis of the mathematical representation of the disease aetiology is developed.
Received 1 February 1980