Horizontal versus vertical transmission of parasites in a stochastic spatial model
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 10, 2026

An Experimental Model to Study Tuberculosis-Malaria Coinfection upon Natural Transmission of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Plasmodium berghei
Published on: February 17, 2014
1Department of Mathematics, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs 80933-7150, USA. schinazi@math.uccs.edu
Abstract:
A number of pathogens may be transmitted from parent to child at or before birth (vertically) or from one individual to another by contact (horizontally). A natural deterministic and non-spatial model, introduced by Lipsitch et al. [Proc. Roy. Soc. London Ser. B 260 (1995) 3211 shows that an epidemic is possible if the vertical transmission or the horizontal transmission is high enough. In contrast, we introduce a stochastic spatial model that shows that, on a particular graph, if the vertical transmission is not high enough, then the infected individuals disappear even for very high horizontal transmission. This illustrates the fact that introducing space may greatly change the qualitative behavior of a model.
Related Concept Videos
Transmission of Pathogens
Symbiosis
Malaria
Reservoir of Infection
Microbial Interactions: Parasitism
Leishmaniasis

