Several works developed within the Epiwork project have been selected to contribute to the Third International Conference on Infectious Disease Dynamics “Epidemics3” that took place in from November 29th to December 2nd in Boston, MA, USA.

Epidemics3 is a wide-ranging conference that deals with infectious disease dynamics in the broadest sense: it includes modeling as well as field and laboratory studies. The conference scope covers both within-host dynamics of infectious agents and dynamics at the population level, particularly the interaction between the two. Areas of emphasis include: spread, transmission, population and public health as well as policy aspects of control and prevention.

Epiwork contributed with poster presentations and talks. Among the Committee Members, there’s prof. John Edmunds, coordinator of Flusurvey, the UK node of WP5 Influenzanet network for influenza surveillance.

One of the poster presentations was about the WP4 Computational Platform, based on the GLEaMviz software.

The GLEaMviz computational tool, a publicly available software to explore realistic epidemic spreading scenarios at the global scale: GLEaMviz Simulator is a multiplatform application that allows to:

• run simulations to assess epidemic scenarios
• predict infectious disease spread
• manage health emergencies

It is based on GLEaM, a stochastic metapopulation approach that integrates high-resolution sociodemographic and mobility data to simulate the spread of epidemics at the worldwide scale. GLeaMviz Simulator allows you to explore your epidemic simulations through a highly flexible disease model, a customizable simulation scenario, and an easy to use visualization platform. Download the software and run your simulations!

The February 2010 issue of Physics World presents a special focus on Complexity and challenges in Network Science. From mapping the rise of the field, to examples of applications rooted in our everyday life, to charting the field’s possible future evolution, the special issue explores the key topics of Network Science – a field where physicists have been playing a major role.

A special feature is dedicated to infectious diseases, how they rapidly spread in our modern society, and what weapons we have nowadays to fight them. The article titled The Flu Fighters by Vittoria Colizza and Alessandro Vespignani (ISI Foundation and Epiwork coordination) describes the contribution of physicists to an interdisciplinary area where complex systems are the main ingredients, and modeling human behavior and biological contagion is the ultimate challenge.

Physics World, February 2010 issue.

D. Brockmann, "Follow the money"

V. Colizza, A. Vespignani, "The Flu Fighters"

In another special feature, Dirk Brockmann (Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-organization) reveals how information garnered from the geographical movement of banknotes and the location of mobile phones can reveal patterns in how people travel
The cover of the special issue shows an illustration by B. Goncalves et al. of the multiscale worldwide mobility networks used in the GLEaM model.

PNAS Cover Image

In the issue of December the 22nd of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, we publish a paper that discusses the interplay of human mobility patterns like those between local metropolitan commuters and long-range airline travelers during a global epidemic. The image of the worldwide mobility network constructed in our paper has been featured in the cover of the journal.

Multiscale mobility networks and the spatial spreading of infectious diseases.
D.Balcan, V. Colizza, B. Gonçalves, H. Hu, J. J. Ramasco, A. Vespignani
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 106, 21484-21489 (2009).

In the paper we detail the definition of the worldwide multiscale mobility network at the core of the Global Epidemic and Mobility (GLEaM) model and discuss the data integration process and the statistical analysis that allow its construction.