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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: EP/L001950/1
Title: Epidemic inverse problems: geometry and sampling
Principal Investigator: Hollingsworth, Professor D
Other Investigators:
House, Professor TA
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
UCL University of Nottingham
Department: Mathematics
Organisation: University of Warwick
Scheme: Standard Research
Starts: 01 July 2013 Ends: 30 June 2015 Value (£): 233,340
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Algebra & Geometry Complexity Science
Statistics & Appl. Probability
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Healthcare
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Panel DatePanel NameOutcome
22 May 2013 Developing Leaders Meeting - CAF Announced
Summary on Grant Application Form
Imagine an epidemic is doubling in size every six days soon after the first

cases are announced. If you know cases are all infectious for six days then a

back-of-the envelope calculation tells you that each case infects on average a

further three before recovering and vaccine coverage of 67% or greater is

needed to contain the outbreak. But if you don't know anything about how long

people with the disease are contagious for, then this simple calculation cannot

be made without additional information.

This project aims to quantify that uncertainty, so that when a measurement of

the duration of infectiousness is made then we will be able to assess how

infectious the disease associated with a particular outbreak is likely to be.

Also, when you have a cold then it is is convenient to describe your disease

state 'categorically', which is to say that you will say "I'm coming down with

a cold", "I'm in the middle of a cold", or "I'm just getting better from a

cold", rather than "my viral titre is probably 3 on a logarithmic scale". It

is also often convenient for scientific epidemiologists to take a categorical

approach to disease state, and this project proposes to find a reliable method

for deciding what the relevant categories should be.

Key Findings
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Potential use in non-academic contexts
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Impacts
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Summary
Date Materialised
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Project URL:  
Further Information:  
Organisation Website: http://www.warwick.ac.uk