Modeling Nosocomial Transmission of Rotavirus in Pediatric Wards

Nosocomial transmission of viral and bacterial infections is a major problem worldwide, affecting millions of patients (and causing hundreds of thousands of deaths) per year. Rotavirus infections affect most children worldwide at least once before age five. We present here deterministic and stochast...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Bulletin of mathematical biology 2011-07, Vol.73 (7), p.1413-1442
Main Authors: Kribs-Zaleta, Christopher M., Jusot, Jean-François, Vanhems, Philippe, Charles, Sandrine
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cell Biology
Child, Preschool
Cross Infection - epidemiology
Cross Infection - transmission
Cross Infection - virology
Disease Outbreaks - prevention & control
Hospitals, Pediatric
Humans
Infant
Infectious Disease Transmission, Professional-to-Patient - prevention & control
Life Sciences
Mathematical and Computational Biology
Mathematics
Mathematics and Statistics
Models, Biological
Original
Original Article
Other
Rotavirus - growth & development
Rotavirus Infections - epidemiology
Rotavirus Infections - transmission
Rotavirus Infections - virology
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Summary:Nosocomial transmission of viral and bacterial infections is a major problem worldwide, affecting millions of patients (and causing hundreds of thousands of deaths) per year. Rotavirus infections affect most children worldwide at least once before age five. We present here deterministic and stochastic models for the transmission of rotavirus in a pediatric hospital ward and draw on published data to compare the efficacy of several possible control measures in reducing the number of infections during a 90-day outbreak, including cohorting, changes in healthcare worker-patient ratio, improving compliance with preventive hygiene measures, and vaccination. Although recently approved vaccines have potential to curtail most nosocomial rotavirus transmission in the future, even short-term improvement in preventive hygiene compliance following contact with symptomatic patients may significantly limit transmission as well, and remains an important control measure, especially where resources are limited.
ISSN:0092-8240
1522-9602
DOI:10.1007/s11538-010-9570-z