Defining pathways of respiratory virus transmission leading to improved intervention strategies. (360G-Wellcome-102975_Z_13_Z)

The transmission dynamics of human respiratory viruses are fundamentally linked to the organisational structure of person-to-person contacts throughout a population be that at the household, school, local community or national levels. The proposed work aims to uncover potential pathways of transmission determined by contact structures, through which to gain greater insight into the emergence, spread, persistence and control of major viral causes of respiratory disease, including influenza, respi ratory syncytial virus, coronaviruses and rhinoviruses. Using a framework for surveillance of respiratory infection at all organisation levels throughout the population of Kenya, for the first time, temporal-spatial data on four respiratory virus or virus groups will be coupled to whole virus genome sequencing data and data on social contact networks, with the aim of predicting the most probable transmission routes in the population and to drive mathematical models by which to explore the effec tiveness of targeted interventions, e.g. household or school based.