Heterogeneous infectiousness in mathematical models of tuberculosis: a systematic review

Publication date: Available online 17 October 2019Source: EpidemicsAuthor(s): Yayehirad A. Melsew, Adeshina I. Adekunle, Allen C. Cheng, Emma S. McBryde, Romain Ragonnet, James M. TrauerAbstractTB mathematical models employ various assumptions and approaches in dealing with the heterogeneous infectiousness of persons with active TB. We reviewed existing approaches and considered the relationship between them and existing epidemiological evidence.We searched the following electronic bibliographic databases from inception to 9 October 2018: MEDLINE, EMBASE, Biosis, Global Health and Scopus. Two investigators extracted data using a standardised data extraction tool. We included in the review any transmission dynamic model of M. tuberculosis transmission explicitly simulating heterogeneous infectiousness of person with active TB. We extracted information including: study objective, model structure, number of active TB compartments, factors used to stratify the active TB compartment, relative infectiousness of each active TB compartment and any intervention evaluated in the model.Our search returned 1,899 unique references, of which the full text of 454 records were assessed for eligibility, and 99 studies met the inclusion criteria. Of these, 89 used compartmental models implemented with ordinary differential equations, while the most common approach to stratification of the active TB compartment was to incorporate two levels of infectiousness. However, various clinical character...

Source: Epidemics - October 18, 2019 Category: Epidemiology Source Type: research