Quantifying the contribution of asymptomatic infection to the cumulative incidence
1Agent-Based Modelling Laboratory,York University,Toronto,CanadaM3J 1P3.
Epidemiology and Infection
|February 8, 2017
Abstract:
Many infectious diseases in humans may manifest with no or mild symptoms. While numerous studies have estimated the proportion of infectious individuals in whom symptoms are absent during the entire course of infection, the contribution of asymptomatic cases to the overall cumulative incidence is difficult to untangle. Here, with a mathematical model, we provide a simple analytical formula to quantify this contribution and highlight the potential for large errors that can arise when naively estimating it.
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