• Question: How does maths relate to STI’s?

    Asked by anon-186010 to Trystan on 12 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Trystan Leng

      Trystan Leng answered on 12 Nov 2018:


      Hi! Researchers use maths to study STIs by making things called ‘mathematical models’. These are simplified versions of disease spread, that can be coded up and then ‘simulated’ on a computer. In this model, we can change features, like how fast people recover or the rate of new partnerships, and we can see what effect this has on things like disease spread or success of vaccination. So by analysing this simpler model, we start to understand what effect these features have on disease spread in the real world!

Comments