Epidemiologists, medical geographers, and public health experts have long focused on city-centred data in the description of epidemic occurrences. While incidence is collected locally, it is typically aggregated to first a city and from there to a regional resolution. Urban researchers have long noted that interurban travel flow directly affects urban populations and thus models based on a stable urban entity. Some have proposed that a “megaregion,” based on one or another urban exchange network, is a more appropriate vehicle for the study of dynamic disease events. In this preliminary study, megaregions based on American commuter flow are used to study the early spread of H1N1 Type-A Influenza in 2009—from three principal cities to surrounding towns and cities. The question was, first, whether these catchments would adequately capture the incidence of viral expansion in a region. Second, the question was whether a “wave-like” pattern of orderly disease progression would be observed.

中文翻译：

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病毒地理学：大区域作为城外疾病集散地

流行病学家、医学地理学家和公共卫生专家长期以来一直关注以城市为中心的数据来描述流行病的发生。虽然发病率是在本地收集的，但通常先汇总到一个城市，然后再汇总到一个区域解决方案。城市研究人员早就注意到，城际旅行流量直接影响城市人口，因此模型基于稳定的城市实体。一些人提出，基于一个或另一个城市交换网络的“大区域”是研究动态疾病事件的更合适的工具。在这项初步研究中，基于美国通勤流量的大区域被用来研究 2009 年 H1N1 甲型流感的早期传播——从三个主要城市到周边城镇。问题是，首先，这些流域是否能充分捕捉到某个地区病毒扩散的发生率。其次，问题是是否会观察到有序疾病进展的“波浪状”模式。