by Chapman LAC, Spencer SEF, Pollington TM, Jewell CP, Mondal D, Alvar J, Hollingsworth TD, Cameron MM, Bern C, Medley GF. PNAS 2020. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2002731117
Summary: The authors apply methods for analyzing individual-level geo-located disease data to nearly a decade’s worth of epidemiological data on incidence of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) and post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL). They quantify the spread of infection in space and time by inferring who infected whom, and estimate the relative contribution of different infection states to transmission. This study highlights the roles played by delayed diagnosis and PKDL in maintaining VL transmission.
Watch movie showing the evolution of the most likely transmission tree over the course of the epidemic from January 2003 to December 2010.