Marschner I C
Department of Statistics, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia.
Math Biosci. 1992 Apr;109(1):39-67. doi: 10.1016/0025-5564(92)90051-w.
The spread of infection in a community stratified into classes, where individuals have a preference for either within- or between-class contact, is discussed. The effect of such classification is assessed through the comparison of heterogeneous epidemic models with corresponding homogeneous models. Stratification of the community is modeled via a multitype branching process approximation to the epidemic. This allows us to conveniently study its effect through such quantities as the epidemic threshold parameter and the probability of a major outbreak. Attention is focused on the model of May and Anderson; however, a number of other heterogeneous structures reflecting preferential mixing are also studied.
