From Spatial Spread to Sexual Networks: Leveraging Infectious Disease Epidemiology Tools to Monitor and Respond to Strep Throat and Gonorrhea

Abstract

At a moment of intense divisions and distrust, it remains critical to highlight the ways scientific tools contribute positively to society and improve public health. This work shows how three distinct methods within infectious disease epidemiology applied to answer different questions produce results that can inform public health guidance and translate to improvements in the health of individuals. First, we show that spatiotemporal analysis of strep throat visits data in the U.S. identifies geographical and seasonal trends and points to key demographic groups that may drive transmission. Next, we show how mathematical modeling can inform public health guidance on the rollout of new antibiotics to treat gonorrhea in the face of rising antimicrobial resistance. Finally, we show that combining mathematical modeling with pathogen genomic analyses can inform gonorrhea surveillance strategies to yield insights on sexual network structures. These findings together emphasize the important role infectious disease epidemiology plays in preventing people from suffering from illness, and in continuing to interrogate the natural world.