Estimating infectious disease parameters such as the serial interval (time between symptom onset in primary and secondary cases) and reproductive number (average number of secondary cases produced by a primary case) are important in understanding infectious disease dynamics. Many estimation methods require linking cases by direct transmission, a difficult task for most diseases.

中文翻译：

---

估计传染病患者之间直接传播的相对可能性。

估计传染病参数，例如连续时间间隔（原发和继发病例在症状发作之间的时间）和生殖数量（原发病例产生的继发病例的平均数量），对于理解传染病动态至关重要。许多估算方法要求通过直接传播将病例联系起来，这对大多数疾病而言都是一项艰巨的任务。