MODELAGEM DE DOENÇAS TRANSMISSÍVEIS

Abstract

For more than a century, mathematical modeling has been applied to the theoretical understanding and control of infectious diseases. Application of the mechanicist reasoning in biology emerged from positivist philosophy that dominated science by the end of the XIX century. The emergence of mathematical modeling as a formal approach to the study of transmissible diseases is described in the manuscript, together with its main concepts, such as the susceptible threshold and the reproductive number. We conclude this review presenting some of the major challenges posed by the application of mathematical models in more practical problems in Public Health.