Mapping the Spread of Disease

Dr. Priya Saxena provides information about how advanced in computing can help map the spread of diseases like bird flu and plague.

Dr. Saxena writes:

Until now, numerous models of the geographic spread of disease were based on the assumption that viruses disperse over geographic areas in a way similar to the diffusion of fine dust particles on the surface of water. These standard models can describe the wavelike spread of historical pandemics quite successfully. Dirk Brockmann concludes that "the consequence of these results is that new theoretical concepts must be developed to understand the geographic spread of modern diseases.