Introduction

Abstract

Vertical transmission is the direct transfer of a disease from an infective parent to an unborn or newly born offspring. Several of the scourges that currently afflict humanity, AIDS, Chagas’ disease, Hepatitis B, are vertically transmitted. Efforts to control the spread of such diseases require quantitative predictions of the future trends of these infections, and consequently, lead to the construction and analysis of appropriate predictive models that take into account the distinctive aspects of vertical transmission. The purpose of this book is to describe the results that have been obtained to date in the formulation and use of such models, and to lay a foundation for future work in this area.