Disease Dynamics

1. Disease Dynamics Welcome to the Disease Dynamics page, the web page for an exciting new project that links primary and secondary schools with leading researchers from the University of Cambridge as we use maths and science, coupled with state of the art technology, to understand how disease spreads through populations. Here you will find all the information you need, from who we are and how to get started, through to the analysis of your research data. About The Project Activities Get Involved! Real Data, Real Research The Research Team Infectious Disease Links Buzzwords Contact Us Previous Years Contact Us FAQs Hot Topics Swine Flu SARS Malaria You Said... Feedback and Testimonials

2. The Research Team Dr Julia Gog is a University Lecturer in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP) in the University of Cambridge. She heads a research group who apply mathematical methods to understand the dynamics of infectious disease. Dr Ken Eames is a research fellow in mathematics whose specialism is the spread of infections through human social networks. Dr Jenny Gage is the co-ordinator of the highly successful Motivate programme which connects research scientists with schools via the medium of videoconference. This project is supported by a Peoples Award grant from the Wellcome Trust.

3. The ProjectWork and play: disease spread, social networks and data collection in schools Research background Many of the most common infectious diseases (such as measles, mumps, and rubella) were historically diseases of childhood. Young people have little prior immunity and mix together in large numbers in schools. Before the introduction of mass vaccination, this combination led to explosive epidemics of these childhood infectious diseases, often beginning at the start of each school year. For diseases where mass vaccination is not carried out (such as influenza), children are likely to be an important driver of transmission to the wider community.

4. The ProjectWork and play: disease spread, social networks and data collection in schools Research background In order to understand better the spread of infectious diseases in schools, we need to know how children interact, in particular what the patterns of contacts are between different age groups. Primary schools are one of the most important but least well-studied settings for the spread of infections. This project gives participating schools the opportunity to be involved in the collection of fundamental data about social mixing networks in primary schools. The data collected will feed directly into ongoing research programmes in Cambridge and beyond.

5. The ProjectWork and play: disease spread, social networks and data collection in schools The spread of disease through human populations depends critically on how people are connected. Schools are one of the most important settings for many diseases because they bring together large numbers of young people who may have no prior immunity to some infections. Scientists know that what happens in schools is crucial to explain patterns of measles and whooping cough in the days before vaccination, and it is suspected that schools are also important places for the spread of colds and flu. As yet, there is a big gap in scientific knowledge: very little is known about how disease spreads within schools because we do not know how school children are connected to each other. This project aims to fill this gap.

6. The ProjectWork and play: disease spread, social networks and data collection in schools Researchers from the maths department at the University of Cambridge have joined forces with the Millennium Mathematics Project to work with schools around the UK. The researchers demonstrate how they use maths to understand the spread of diseases and the pupils have the chance to take part in an exciting new research project. Both primary and secondary schools have worked with researchers from the University of Cambridge via videoconferences to explore some of the mathematics of epidemics. Teachers and secondary school pupils collaborated with the researchers to design methods of collecting social mixing data, to apply these methods, and to analyse the results. For the participants the benefits have been both educational and an unprecedented opportunity to make an important and original contribution to a high-profile area of scientific research.

7. The ProjectWork and play: disease spread, social networks and data collection in schools The students were asked to collect data on how primary school children interact during a school day, and to do some preliminary analysis of the data. By the end of the project, they had discovered what the mixing patterns were for children in one or more of their feeder primary schools, and what these patterns tell us about how diseases such as influenza and measles might be controlled – an extremely important research topic in the light of concerns about potential pandemics.