Abstract:
In the fight against endemic infectious diseases – which disproportionately affect the
developing world – the effective use of scarce resources is of paramount importance.
For vaccine preventable diseases, vaccination campaigns should be of optimal
efficiency, a goal which is dependent on effective disease surveillance as well as
a thorough understanding of the disease’s spatial epidemiology. Several recent
approaches show great promise in allowing us to understand the high resolution
spatial aspects of epidemic disease spread following a single introduction, but do not
account for the complexities inherent to endemic diseases. This thesis describes the
development and use of novel techniques that can be applied to better understand
endemic diseases and epidemics originating from multiple introductions, towards
improved control and eventual elimination.
