powered by NetLogo
view/download model file: Restaurant_HepA_N5.nlogo
Some pathogens can spread through food or person-to-person contact. Hepatitis A is an example. How can a health department identify the type of transmission and take action?
Here invididuals contact each other in public places, or their own homes, or through ingesting contaminated food.
Food is delivered to restaurants, daily. Individuals may become ill through contact with the food, and may transmit infection to others through personal contact.
Hit setup and click go. Try infecting food. After some time try disinfecting food.
If the health department can close the restaurant, individuals will no longer be able to contract the infection through consuming food, but may still contract or pass on the infection through personal contact.
This is a very basic model that one could extend to try out various interventions in addition to closing restaurants.
Chris Keane created this model.