Researchers examined mobile phone calling records of approximately 2.5 million subscribers to determine mobility through districts in Namibia from 2010 to 2014 and found that in travels to a high-density district, trip duration was typically less than 1 week long, but duration increased when the destination was a low-density district; including trip duration into pathogen transmission models resulted in delayed timing of spatial spread, and incorporating trip duration into such models can improve assessment of disease spread in low-populated routes, according to the authors.
Article #19-22663: "The duration of travel impacts the spatial dynamics of infectious diseases," by John R. Giles et al.
MEDIA CONTACT: John R. Giles, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD; e-mail: gilesjohnr@gmail.com
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences