Virulence-mediated infectiousness and activity trade-offs and their impact on transmission potential of patients infected with influenza

Communicable diseases are often virulent, i.e., they cause morbidity symptoms in those infected. While some symptoms may be transmission-enhancing, other symptoms are likely to reduce transmission potential. For human diseases, the reduction in transmission opportunities is commonly caused by reduced activity. There is limited data regarding the potential impact of virulence on transmission potential. We performed an exploratory data analysis of 324 influenza patients at a university health center during the 2016/2017 influenza season. We classified symptoms as infectiousness-related or morbidity-related and calculated two scores. The scores were used to explore the relationship between infectiousness, morbidity (virulence), and activity level. We found a decrease in activity level with increasing morbidity scores. There was no consistent pattern between activity level and infectiousness score. We also found a positive correlation between morbidity and infectiousness scores. Overall, we...

传染病通常具有较强毒力（virulence），即会使感染者出现发病相关症状。尽管部分症状可能有助于提升传播潜能（transmission potential），但另有部分症状则可能降低该潜能。对于人类传染病而言，传播机会的减少通常源于宿主活动量下降。目前关于毒力对传播潜能的潜在影响，相关研究数据仍较为有限。本研究针对2016/2017流感季期间，某大学健康中心的324名流感患者开展了探索性数据分析（exploratory data analysis）。研究将症状划分为与感染性（infectiousness）相关及与发病相关两类，并计算得到两项评分。利用这两项评分，探究了感染性、发病程度（即毒力）与活动水平三者间的关联。结果显示，患者的活动水平随发病评分升高而呈下降趋势。而活动水平与感染性评分之间未呈现出一致的关联模式。此外，发病评分与感染性评分之间存在正相关关系。总体而言，本研究……