The impact of regular school closure on seasonal influenza epidemics: a data-driven spatial transmission model for Belgium.
Giancarlo De LucaKim Van KerckhovePietro ColettiChiara PolettoNathalie BossuytNiel HensVittoria ColizzaPublished in: BMC infectious diseases (2018)
Changes in the way individuals establish contacts during holidays are the key ingredient explaining the mitigating effect of regular school closure. Our findings highlight the need to quantify these changes in different demographic and epidemic contexts in order to provide accurate and reliable evaluations of closure effectiveness. They also suggest strategic policies in the distribution of holiday periods to minimize the epidemic impact.