EpiLPS

REF Gressani et al. (2022)
Docs
Github github.com/oswaldogressani/EpiLPS
Last Commit Oct, 2024
Installation

Brief description

Brief summary of the method from the paper

EpiLPS is a Bayesian tool for estimating the time-varying reproduction number using a robust, efficient approach. It models case counts with a Negative Binomial distribution to handle overdispersion and employs Bayesian P-splines for smoothing epidemic curves. The methodology leverages Laplace approximations to estimate the posterior distribution of the spline coefficients rapidly. Two inference methods are provided: a fast maximum a posteriori approach for quick estimates and an MCMC scheme using Langevin dynamics for thorough posterior sampling. EpiLPS delivers accurate estimates without arbitrary smoothing assumptions and has been applied to SARS-CoV-1, H1N1, and COVID-19 datasets.

Methods

This package contains the following methods:

Assessment

Features
Ability to nowcast/forecast Nowcasting,adjusts for underreporting by estimating unreported infections and combining them with reported cases to reflect actual daily epidemics
Incorporates delay distributions Some, It accounts for the uncertainty associated with reporting delays
Estimates expected cases Yes
Communicates uncertainty Yes, The credible intervals are calculated via the delta method
Validation
Documentation of package methods Yes
Documentation of package implementation Yes

Starter code