Sequential Bayesian inference for stochastic epidemic models of cumulative incidence

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Main Authors: Whitaker, Sam A., Golightly, Andrew, Gillespie, Colin S., Kypraios, Theodore
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Whitaker, Sam A.
Golightly, Andrew
Gillespie, Colin S.
Kypraios, Theodore
author_facet Whitaker, Sam A.
Golightly, Andrew
Gillespie, Colin S.
Kypraios, Theodore
contents Epidemics are inherently stochastic, and stochastic models provide an appropriate way to describe and analyse such phenomena. Given temporal incidence data consisting of, for example, the number of new infections or removals in a given time window, a continuous-time discrete-valued Markov process provides a natural description of the dynamics of each model component, typically taken to be the number of susceptible, exposed, infected or removed individuals. Fitting the SEIR model to time-course data is a challenging problem due incomplete observations and, consequently, the intractability of the observed data likelihood. Whilst sampling based inference schemes such as Markov chain Monte Carlo are routinely applied, their computational cost typically restricts analysis to data sets of no more than a few thousand infective cases. Instead, we develop a sequential inference scheme that makes use of a computationally cheap approximation of the most natural Markov process model. Crucially, the resulting model allows a tractable conditional parameter posterior which can be summarised in terms of a set of low dimensional statistics. This is used to rejuvenate parameter samples in conjunction with a novel bridge construct for propagating state trajectories conditional on the next observation of cumulative incidence. The resulting inference framework also allows for stochastic infection and reporting rates. We illustrate our approach using synthetic and real data applications.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_13537
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Sequential Bayesian inference for stochastic epidemic models of cumulative incidence
Whitaker, Sam A.
Golightly, Andrew
Gillespie, Colin S.
Kypraios, Theodore
Methodology
Applications
Computation
Epidemics are inherently stochastic, and stochastic models provide an appropriate way to describe and analyse such phenomena. Given temporal incidence data consisting of, for example, the number of new infections or removals in a given time window, a continuous-time discrete-valued Markov process provides a natural description of the dynamics of each model component, typically taken to be the number of susceptible, exposed, infected or removed individuals. Fitting the SEIR model to time-course data is a challenging problem due incomplete observations and, consequently, the intractability of the observed data likelihood. Whilst sampling based inference schemes such as Markov chain Monte Carlo are routinely applied, their computational cost typically restricts analysis to data sets of no more than a few thousand infective cases. Instead, we develop a sequential inference scheme that makes use of a computationally cheap approximation of the most natural Markov process model. Crucially, the resulting model allows a tractable conditional parameter posterior which can be summarised in terms of a set of low dimensional statistics. This is used to rejuvenate parameter samples in conjunction with a novel bridge construct for propagating state trajectories conditional on the next observation of cumulative incidence. The resulting inference framework also allows for stochastic infection and reporting rates. We illustrate our approach using synthetic and real data applications.
title Sequential Bayesian inference for stochastic epidemic models of cumulative incidence
topic Methodology
Applications
Computation
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.13537