Estimating incubation period with multiple contact days

Wilson Ws Tam; Tze Wai Wong

doi:10.1080/00365540601113719

Estimating incubation period with multiple contact days

Scand J Infect Dis. 2007;39(6-7):609-11. doi: 10.1080/00365540601113719.

Authors

Wilson Ws Tam¹, Tze Wai Wong

Affiliation

¹ Department of Community and Family Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong. WilsonTam@cuhk.edu.hk

PMID: 17577826
DOI: 10.1080/00365540601113719

Abstract

Multiple contacts with the infectious source may cause inconsistencies in determining the incubation period of a patient and hence the calculation of the mean and variance of the incubation period. A method based on probability distribution to deal with the problem is presented and an example is given for illustration.

MeSH terms

Communicable Diseases / epidemiology
Communicable Diseases / transmission*
Contact Tracing / methods*
Disease Outbreaks
Hong Kong / epidemiology
Humans
Infectious Disease Transmission, Patient-to-Professional*
Probability
Sentinel Surveillance
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome / epidemiology
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome / transmission*
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome / virology
Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus / growth & development