Inference and control of the nosocomial transmission of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Pei, Sen; Morone, Flaviano; Liljeros, Fredrik; Makse, Hernán; Shaman, Jeffrey L

In this work, we model nosocomial MRSA transmission using an individual-level agent-based model (Macal et al., 2014; Assab et al., 2017) . One major advantage of using an agent-based approach is that the heterogeneity of contact in different ward types can be accounted for within the model. For instance, even though we were provided no information about ward type, some of the heterogeneity among wards can be represented by the contact pattern specific to each ward, for example a longer length of stay in long-term healthcare units. Other aspects, however, are simplified; for example, due to the observed absence of infection clusters ( Figure 1B) , we assume a uniform transmission rate across different wards within the model. This assumption is ultimately justified by the good agreement between inferred dynamics and observations (as described later).