title: A brief history of R0 and a recipe for its calculation.
abstract: In this paper I present the genesis of R0 in demography, ecology and epidemiology, from embryo to its current adult form. I argue on why it has taken so long for the concept to mature in epidemiology when there were ample opportunities for cross-fertilisation from demography and ecology from where it reached adulthood fifty years earlier. Today, R0 is a more fully developed adult in epidemiology than in demography. In the final section I give an algorithm for its calculation in heterogeneous populations.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Utrecht, Quantitative Veterinary Epidemiology Group, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: J A P
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Heesterbeek
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003710:Demography; D004463:Ecology; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D013223:Statistics as Topic / Q000266:history*