The Effect Of Opinion Clustering On Disease Outbreaks

Main Category: Public Health
Also Included In: Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses;  Immune System / Vaccines;  Psychology / Psychiatry
Article Date: 21 Aug 2008 - 3:00 PDT

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Many high income countries currently experience large outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases such as measles despite the availability of highly effective vaccines.

There is growing evidence that belief systems, rather than access to vaccines, are the primary barrier to vaccination in such countries. We use computer simulations to study how clusters of unvaccinated individuals can form due to opinion formation processes, and show how this can lead to a dramatic increase of disease outbreak probability.

Our results suggest that the current estimates of vaccination coverage necessary to avoid outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases might be too low.

Journal of the Royal Society Interface

Journal of the Royal Society Interface is the Society's cross-disciplinary publication promoting research at the interface between the physical and life sciences. It offers rapidity, visibility and high-quality peer review and is ranked fifth in JCR's multidisciplinary category. The journal also incorporates Interface Focus, a peer-reviewed, themed supplement, each issue of which concentrates on a specific cross-disciplinary subject.

Journal of the Royal Society Interface