How to Measure Transmission Rate

When researchers are studying diseases and ways to control them, one important metric regarding the effectiveness of these control methods is the transmission rate. It's possible to measure the rate of disease transmission for time periods from a day to a century using a basic formula. When transmission rates start to head toward zero, researchers know they have won the upper hand over the disease in question.

Things You'll Need

• Calculator

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Instructions

• 1

  Enter the number of new cases of a particular disease into your calculator. For example, let's say there were 4,832 new cases of a disease in 2009, and you want to measure transmission rate for that year. You would enter "4832" into your calculator. This number is called "incidence."

• 2

  Divide this number by the total number of cases of that disease in that particular period of time. For example, let's say there were 15,112 total cases of the disease at the beginning of 2009. This number is called "prevalence."

• 3

  Multiply the result from the previous step by 100. In this case, the answer after multiplying is 31.97. Your transmission rate is 31.97 per 100 persons living with the disease.