Methods and measures for the description of epidemiologic contact networks

This article describes new methods to characterize epidemiologic contact ne tworks that involve links that are being dynamically formed and dissolved. The new social network measures are designed with an epidemiologic interpre tation in mind. These methods are intended to capture dynamic aspects of ne tworks related to their potential to spread infection. This differs from ma ny social network measures that are based on static networks. The networks are formulated as transmission graphs (TGS), in which nodes represent relat ionships between two individuals and directed edges (links) represent the p otential of an individual in one relationship to carry infection to an indi vidual in another relationship. Network measures derived from transmission graphs include "source counts," which are defined as the number of prior re lationships that could potentially transmit infection to a particular node or individual.