Developing the SIR Model

Compartmental modelling is a cornerstone of mathematical modelling of infectious diseases and this course will introduce some of the basic concepts in building compartmental models, including how to interpret and represent rates, durations and proportions. You'll learn to place the mathematics to one side and concentrate on gaining intuition into the behaviour of a simple epidemic, and be introduced to further basic concepts of infectious disease epidemiology, such as the basic reprodu

• Construct valid mathematical models capturing the natural history of a given infectious disease
• Interpret compartmental models in terms of rates, proportions and delays
• Describe the fundamental processes driving the dynamics of an SIR epidemic and show their relation to important concepts
• Explain mechanisms by which susceptibility can change over time and develop a simple SIR model to account for these under given parameters