Studies of the spread and containment of disease rely at heart on a variety of mathematical and computational techniques. This collection aims to introduce the fundamentals of epidemiology and to showcase contemporary work using discrete mathematical techniques. Introductory chapters explain the fundamental concepts of epidemiology, the basic tools provided by mathematics and computer science, and some of the outstanding open problems in the area. Contributed articles then highlight particular problems in monitoring disease outbreaks, vaccination strategies, and modelling disease survival factors, and successfully apply techniques such as formal concept analysis, support vector machines, random graph models, and systems of differential equations.
