21/11/05

Targeting ‘superspreaders’ to control diseases

Coughs and sneezes spread diseases, but some people pass on more infections than others Copyright: Global Stop TB Partnership

We encourage you to republish this article online and in print, it’s free under our creative commons attribution license, but please follow some simple guidelines:

You have to credit our authors.
You have to credit SciDev.Net — where possible include our logo with a link back to the original article.
You can simply run the first few lines of the article and then add: “Read the full article on SciDev.Net” containing a link back to the original article.
If you want to also take images published in this story you will need to confirm with the original source if you're licensed to use them.
The easiest way to get the article on your site is to embed the code below.

For more information view our media page and republishing guidelines.

The full article is available here as HTML.

Press Ctrl-C to copy

<div class="article-wrap">
<div id="article-introduction">
<h1>Targeting ‘superspreaders’ to control diseases</h1>
<h4></h4>
</div>
<br />
<br />

<div id="article-body">
<p><P>Research published in <em>Nature</em> shows that for infectious diseases such as SARS, measles and Ebola, a minority of individuals are responsible for most new cases.</P><br />
<P>As Alison Galvani and Robert May explain in an accompanying article, treating only these ‘superspreaders’ could halt disease outbreaks sooner, whilst treating fewer people than if conventional measures were used.</P><br />
<P>Galvani and May say such ‘heterogeneous diseases’ are less likely to cause epidemics than infections that everyone is equally likely to pass on. But the researchers warn that if such diseases are left unchecked and do give rise to epidemics, they are more likely to be “explosive”. </P><br />
<P>The most heterogeneous diseases include schistosomiasis (bilharzia), HIV/AIDS and malaria, for which one-fifth of the population is responsible for more than 80 per cent of disease transmission.</P><a  href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v438/n7066/full/438293a.html" target="_blank" onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/tracking/external/'+this.href);" rel="noopener noreferrer">Link to full article by Galvani and May in <em>Nature</A></em><BR><BR><a  href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v438/n7066/full/nature04153.html" target="_blank" onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/tracking/external/'+this.href);" rel="noopener noreferrer">Link to full research paper in <em>Nature</A></em> <BR><BR></p>

</div>
<div class="quick-links-wrapper">
<h3>You might also like</h3>
[related-articles]
</div>
<p>This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.scidev.net" target="_blank">SciDev.Net</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/features/targeting-superspreaders-to-control-diseases/" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
<script type="text/javascript">
(function(e,t,n,r,i,s,o){e["GoogleAnalyticsObject"]=i;e[i]=e[i]||function(){(e[i].q=e[i].q||[]).push(arguments)},e[i].l=1*new Date;s=t.createElement(n),o=t.getElementsByTagName(n)[0];s.async=1;s.src=r;o.parentNode.insertBefore(s,o)})(window,document,"script","//www.google-analytics.com/ga.js","ga");var _gaq=_gaq||[];var _gaq=_gaq||[];_gaq.push(["_setAccount","UA-3223906-8"],["_trackEvent","article interaction","republished","https://www.scidev.net/global/features/targeting-superspreaders-to-control-diseases/",null,true])
</script>
</div>

Research published in Nature shows that for infectious diseases such as SARS, measles and Ebola, a minority of individuals are responsible for most new cases.

As Alison Galvani and Robert May explain in an accompanying article, treating only these ‘superspreaders’ could halt disease outbreaks sooner, whilst treating fewer people than if conventional measures were used.

Galvani and May say such ‘heterogeneous diseases’ are less likely to cause epidemics than infections that everyone is equally likely to pass on. But the researchers warn that if such diseases are left unchecked and do give rise to epidemics, they are more likely to be “explosive”.

The most heterogeneous diseases include schistosomiasis (bilharzia), HIV/AIDS and malaria, for which one-fifth of the population is responsible for more than 80 per cent of disease transmission.

Link to full article by Galvani and May in Nature

Link to full research paper in Nature