Individual variation in epidemiological parameters such as infectiousness, susceptibility and clearance is ubiquitous in host-pathogen systems, and deserves special attention in theoretical transmission models and their analysis. Furthermore, measures of disease control and intervention effects must account for the influence of such underlying heterogeneity. In this line of research, we have analyzed host-pathogen systems subject to variation in epidemiological parameters (Pessoa et al. 2014, Mendes et al. 2014, Gomes et al. 2016).

Our aim has been to increasingly understand on a deeper level the generative mechanisms for such heterogeneity, e.g. natural exposure to the pathogen,  immunizing interventions, and within-host strain interactions. Developing epidemiological models across transmission scenarios accounting for this variation (e.g. in co-infection), we analyze its higher-level effects and the top-down processes that act to maintain it (Gaivao et al. 2017).

Related works:

• Gjini and Madec (2021), Ecology and Evolution, doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7259
• Le et al. (2022) Journal of Theoretical Biology, doi.org/10.1016/j.jtbi.2022.111041