The basic reproduction number, R 0 is a measure of the potential for disease spread in a population. Mathematically, R 0 is a threshold for stability of a disease-free equilibrium and is related to the peak and final size of an epidemic. The purpose of these notes is to give a precise definition and algorithm for obtaining R 0 for a general compartmental ordinary differential equation model of disease transmission. Several examples of calculating R 0 are included, and the epidemiological interpretation of this threshold parameter is connected to the local and global stability of a disease-free equilibrium.
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van den Driessche, P., Watmough, J. (2008). Further Notes on the Basic Reproduction Number. In: Brauer, F., van den Driessche, P., Wu, J. (eds) Mathematical Epidemiology. Lecture Notes in Mathematics, vol 1945. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-78911-6_6
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