A PROBABILISTIC CELLULAR AUTOMATA TO STUDYING THE SPREADING OF PNEUMONIA IN A POPULATION

A simple analytical and simulation framework to study the diffusion of pneumococci in finite population of humans is proposed, using probabilistic cellular automata. Furthermore, this epidemic spatial model permits to reproduce explicitly the interaction of two types of transmission mechanisms in terms of global and local variables, which in turn can be adjusted to simulate respectively the populational mobility and geographical neighborhood contacts. It was possible with this alternative model: 1) to observe the pneumococcal spreading through a population, 2) the study of antibiotics effects in disease's control in relation with effectiveness and percentage of individuals covered by the responsibility analyses of CCC (child care center) in dissemination process, and 3) the understanding of the relationship of hours spent in CCC and pneumococcal transmission.