Analysis of a Model with Multiple Infectious Stages and Arbitrarily Distributed Stage Durations
Infectious diseases may have multiple infectious stages with very different epidemiological attributes, including infectivity and disease progression. These stages are often assumed to have exponentially distributed durations in epidemiological models. However, models that use the exponential distribution assumption (EDA) may generate biased and even misleading results in some cases. This discrepancy is particularly damaging if the models are employed to assist policy-makers in disease control...