The Epidemic Behavior of the Hepatitis C Virus

作者：Oliver George Pybus, Michael Charleston, Sunetra Gupta, Andrew Rambaut, Edward Charles Holmes, Paul Harvey · 发表于：Science · 年份：2001 · DOI：10.1126/science.1058321 · 被引用次数：455 · 研究领域：Hepatitis C virus research、Liver Disease Diagnosis and Treatment、Influenza Virus Research Studies

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a leading worldwide cause of liver disease. Here, we use a new model of HCV spread to investigate the epidemic behavior of the virus and to estimate its basic reproductive number from gene sequence data. We find significant differences in epidemic behavior among HCV subtypes and suggest that these differences are largely the result of subtype-specific transmission patterns. Our model builds a bridge between the disciplines of population genetics and mathematical epidemiology by using pathogen gene sequences to infer the population dynamic history of an infectious disease.