Seasonal forcing

Gist

Some diseases like RSV need to have seasonal forcing to explain the dynamics

Definition

Seasonal forcing is having some season change to the transmission. This could reflect changes in contact rate (for example, think school opening and closing) or even climate-related changes that could influence transmission.

What diseases are associated with it?

Uses

We usually use a sinusoidal curve for the transmission coefficient

Relatively modest levels of variation in the transmission rate can translate into large amplitude fluctuations in the observed disease incidence.