The Use of Molecular Epidemiology

Abstract

The use of molecular methods to assess the spread of infectious diseases has become an important way to follow epidemiological patterns. While traditional epidemiology concentrates on the host, the molecular methods focus on the etiological agent, which in this book is the virus that causes the disease one wants to monitor. Naturally, many modern epidemiological studies include data from both hosts and pathogens, and a study without one of these two legs will suffer in its value. As we will see throughout this book, there are many advantages with the use of molecular methods. As an example of the strength of molecular methods, phylogenetic analyses of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) have proven to be able to reconstruct transmission chains on the individual level to solve criminal investigations. Traditional epidemiology, where one expects all information given by the subjects to be true, could obviously not solve such situations. Other examples where molecular epidemiology excels include the situation when animals are involved and when the subjects are unavailable for questioning (e.g., Chapters 12 and 15).