If cold (flu) cases were mapped geographically over time, would you see the disease move in continuous waves or pop up in locations sporadically?
In: Mathematics
When you say cold (flu), do you mean rhinovirus and influenza respectively? Rhinovirus mutates at such a quick rate, it’s not something worth tracking unless something wiping people out emerges. As for the flu, they use trending outbreaks in other countries, gather tons of data, and that’s how/why our flu shot is different every year. To protect against what’s been most prevalent. Consider the flu and how it’s spread. It has the capability of inoculating a person from an infected persons droplets, making it easier to spread. So the map of widespread infection will be a mixed bag of adjacent and sporadic areas. Mode of transmission is everything when it comes to tracking outbreaks. When it comes to fecal-oral route, you tend to see outbreaks spread faster in areas where hygiene isn’t the greatest.
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