Basic reproduction number

The basic reproduction number R0, also called reproductive rate, is a term used in infectious disease epidemiology.

The basic reproduction number indicates how many other people an infected person can infect on average, in a susceptible, that is no immunity to the pathogen -owning population.

With the help of R0 can be estimated, such as the spread of an epidemic is to start and what proportion of the population must be immunized or immune by vaccination to prevent an epidemic.