A high rate of increase in the number of infected individuals implies high infectiousness. In that case, the pathogen passes from the tissue of an infected person the tissue of a different person. Does this infectiousness scale? Does a high level of infectiousness at the level of the social network indicate high infectiousness for an individual, from the person’s infected tissue to the person’s uninfected tissue? (The pathogen does not `care’ where its host tissue is located, and does not distinguish individuals.) Another way of looking at it. All mean path lengths for pathogen transmission are equivalent whether in the same or different individuals? Is that possible? If it were so, then a pathogen virulent at the network level would often be virulent at the individual level.
Found:
Negative Correlation between Individual-Insect-Level Virulence and Colony-Level Virulence of Paenibacillus larvae, the Etiological Agent of American Foulbrood of Honeybees
APPLIED AND ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY, May 2009, p. 3344–3347
Dear Robert,
I think that the answer could be in the realm of contagiousness, expressed as R0, while individual susceptibilty depends on other factors, such as microorganism load and immunitary status.
Best,
Dave
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