Measuring Disease Dynamics in Populations: Characterizing the Likelihood of Control

Trainer
Gregory Glass, PhD, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health

Description
In this presentation, Dr. Gregory Glass examines disease ecology and its relevance to public health, focusing especially on the concepts of net reproductive ratio and effective reproductive ratio. He also examines implications of net reproductive ratio for patterns of future diseases.

Trainer
A specialist in zoonotic diseases and disease ecology, Dr. Glass works with the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health's Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology. His group is primarily involved in studies of the maintenance and transmission dynamics of infectious diseases, especially zoonotic diseases, and their work includes both laboratory and field research of animal reservoir and arthropod vector populations, as well as epidemiologic studies of affected human populations. Their goal is to better understand the reasons for the persistence and emergence of infectious diseases.

Recent research has focused on rodent-borne viruses (Hantavirus, Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus), bacteria (Leptospira, Borrelia), and rickettsiae (Ehrlichia), as well as vertebrate host responses to Ixodid tick salivary antigens. In addition to traditional field and laboratory studies, their laboratory has developed a geographic information system (GIS) to study environmental correlates of disease risk. Much of their current focus is on the development of integrated statistical spatial models of disease risk assessment.