CHARACTERIZING RISK OF TRANSMISSION OF RESPIRATORY VIRUSES AMONG SCHOOL CHILDREN USING PROXIES OF INFECTIOUS CONTACT AND GENETIC DATA

School-aged children play an important role in influenza. In this thesis we present a social network analysis of contacts among 746 students in 3 different schools and a genomic analysis of influenza viruses from 180 students in 9 schools. These schools are located in urban and suburban areas in and near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA and include elementary, middle, and high schools. We collected a proxy for social contact information using wireless sensor devices worn by the students, programmed so that they regularly record other nearby devices if they are closer than 4 meters. We analyzed these networks to identify the patterns of proximal interactions of children in different classes and grades, identify community structure within schools and examine the impact of the physical environment on proximal contacts between students. We created undirected weighted networks from the data recorded by these devices and conducted social network analyses of these networks. In elementary and middle schools we observe high number of intra-grade and intra-classroom contacts, and relatively low number of inter-grade contacts. However, in high schools, contact networks are well connected and mixed and are difficult to separate into specific grades or classrooms. The high modularity of lower grades suggests that assumptions of homogeneous mixing within schools in epidemic models may be inappropriate whereas lower modularity in high schools suggest that homogenous mixing assumptions may be more acceptable in these settings. Genomic data of the influenza viruses was analyzed via phylogenetic trees. This thesis was advised by Derek Cummings and read by Robert Scharpf