Volume 10, Number 5, May 2004

Ring Vaccination and Smallpox Control

Mirjam Kretzschmar,* Susan van den Hof,* Jacco Wallinga,* and Jan van Wijngaarden†
*National Institute of Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, the Netherlands; and †Inspectorate of Health Care, the Hague, the Netherlands

Figure 5. The effective reproduction number R_υ, that determines the success of intervention is shown as a function of the basic reproduction number R₀ for a vaccination coverage of 50% in the casual contact ring. In A, contacts are not monitored after vaccination; in B, all identified contacts are isolated and cause further transmission. The different lines in A are for different assumptions about how long it takes to trace and vaccinate those contacts. In B, it does not make a difference whether it takes 1, 2, or 3 days to find the contacts. If R₀ is 5, the intervention will be successful in both cases, if R₀ is 10, 50% coverage is no longer sufficient to curb the epidemic.

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This page last reviewed April 20, 2004

Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal
National Center for Infectious Diseases
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