# DrErikVolz

Faculty of MedicineSchool of Public Health

Senior Lecturer

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### Contact

+44 (0)20 7594 1933e.volz

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### Location

UG10Norfolk PlaceSt Mary's Campus

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## Publications

Publication Type
Year
to

50 results found

Le Vu S, Ratmann O, Delpech V, Brown AE, Gill ON, Tostevin A, Fraser C, Volz EMet al., 2018, Comparison of cluster-based and source-attribution methods for estimating transmission risk using large HIV sequence databases, EPIDEMICS, Vol: 23, Pages: 1-10, ISSN: 1755-4365

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Volz EM, Didelot X, 2018, Modeling the Growth and Decline of Pathogen Effective Population Size Provides Insight into Epidemic Dynamics and Drivers of Antimicrobial Resistance., Syst Biol, Vol: 67, Pages: 719-728

Nonparametric population genetic modeling provides a simple and flexible approach for studying demographic history and epidemic dynamics using pathogen sequence data. Existing Bayesian approaches are premised on stochastic processes with stationary increments which may provide an unrealistic prior for epidemic histories which feature extended period of exponential growth or decline. We show that nonparametric models defined in terms of the growth rate of the effective population size can provide a more realistic prior for epidemic history. We propose a nonparametric autoregressive model on the growth rate as a prior for effective population size, which corresponds to the dynamics expected under many epidemic situations. We demonstrate the use of this model within a Bayesian phylodynamic inference framework. Our method correctly reconstructs trends of epidemic growth and decline from pathogen genealogies even when genealogical data are sparse and conventional skyline estimators erroneously predict stable population size. We also propose a regression approach for relating growth rates of pathogen effective population size and time-varying variables that may impact the replicative fitness of a pathogen. The model is applied to real data from rabies virus and Staphylococcus aureus epidemics. We find a close correspondence between the estimated growth rates of a lineage of methicillin-resistant S. aureus and population-level prescription rates of $\beta$-lactam antibiotics. The new models are implemented in an open source R package called skygrowth which is available at https://github.com/mrc-ide/skygrowth.

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Volz EM, Le Vu S, Ratmann O, Tostevin A, Dunn D, Orkin C, O'Shea S, Delpech V, Brown A, Gill N, Fraser C, UK HIV Drug Resistance Databaseet al., 2018, Molecular Epidemiology of HIV-1 Subtype B Reveals Heterogeneous Transmission Risk: Implications for Intervention and Control., J Infect Dis, Vol: 217, Pages: 1522-1529

Background: The impact of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) depends on infections averted by protecting vulnerable individuals as well as infections averted by preventing transmission by those who would have been infected if not receiving PrEP. Analysis of HIV phylogenies reveals risk factors for transmission, which we examine as potential criteria for allocating PrEP. Methods: We analyzed 6912 HIV-1 partial pol sequences from men who have sex with men (MSM) in the United Kingdom combined with global reference sequences and patient-level metadata. Population genetic models were developed that adjust for stage of infection, global migration of HIV lineages, and changing incidence of infection through time. Models were extended to simulate the effects of providing susceptible MSM with PrEP. Results: We found that young age <25 years confers higher risk of HIV transmission (relative risk = 2.52 [95% confidence interval, 2.32-2.73]) and that young MSM are more likely to transmit to one another than expected by chance. Simulated interventions indicate that 4-fold more infections can be averted over 5 years by focusing PrEP on young MSM. Conclusions: Concentrating PrEP doses on young individuals can avert more infections than random allocation.

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Ratmann O, Hodcroft EB, Pickles M, Cori A, Hall M, Lycett S, Colijn C, Dearlove B, Didelot X, Frost S, Hossain ASMM, Joy JB, Kendall M, Kuhnert D, Leventhal GE, Liang R, Plazzotta G, Poon AFY, Rasmussen DA, Stadler T, Volz E, Weis C, Brown AJL, Fraser Cet al., 2017, Phylogenetic Tools for Generalized HIV-1 Epidemics: Findings from the PANGEA-HIV Methods Comparison, MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION, Vol: 34, Pages: 185-203, ISSN: 0737-4038

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Sadasivam RS, Cutrona SL, Luger TM, Volz E, Kinney R, Rao SR, Allison JJ, Houston TKet al., 2017, Share2Quit: Online Social Network Peer Marketing of Tobacco Cessation Systems, NICOTINE & TOBACCO RESEARCH, Vol: 19, Pages: 314-323, ISSN: 1462-2203

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Siveroni IA, Volz EM, 2017, PhyDyn: Epidemiological Modelling in BEAST

PhyDyn is a BEAST2 package for performing Bayesian phylogenetic inference under models that deal with structured populations with complex population dynamics. This package enables simultaneous estimation of epidemiological parameters and pathogen phylogenies.PhyDyn implements a structured coalescent model for a large class of epidemic processes specified by a deterministic nonlinear dynamical system, and computes the log-likelihood of a gene genealogy conditional on a complex demographic history. Genealogies are specified as timed phylogenetic trees in which lineages are associated with the distinct subpopulation in which they are sampled. Epidemic models are defined by a series of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) specifying the rates that new lineages introduced in the population (birth matrix) and the rates at which migrations, or transition between states occur (migration matrix).

SOFTWARE

Volz EM, Frost SDW, 2017, Scalable relaxed clock phylogenetic dating, VIRUS EVOLUTION, Vol: 3, ISSN: 2057-1577

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Volz EM, Ndembi N, Nowak R, Kijak GH, Idoko J, Dakum P, Royal W, Baral S, Dybul M, Blattner WA, Charurat Met al., 2017, Phylodynamic analysis to inform prevention efforts in mixed HIV epidemics., Virus Evol, Vol: 3, ISSN: 2057-1577

In HIV epidemics of Sub Saharan Africa, the utility of HIV prevention efforts focused on key populations at higher risk of HIV infection and transmission is unclear. We conducted a phylodynamic analysis of HIV-1 pol sequences from four different risk groups in Abuja, Nigeria to estimate transmission patterns between men who have sex with men (MSM) and a representative sample of newly enrolled treatment naive HIV clients without clearly recorded HIV acquisition risks. We develop a realistic dynamical infectious disease model which was fitted to time-scaled phylogenies for subtypes G and CRF02_AG using a structured-coalescent approach. We compare the infectious disease model and structured coalescent to commonly used genetic clustering methods. We estimate HIV incidence among MSM of 7.9% (95%CI, 7.0-10.4) per susceptible person-year, and the population attributable fraction of HIV transmissions from MSM to reproductive age females to be 9.1% (95%CI, 3.8-18.6), and from the reproductive age women to MSM as 0.2% (95%CI, 0.06-0.3). Applying these parameter estimates to evaluate a test-and-treat HIV strategy that target MSM reduces the total HIV infections averted by half with a 2.5-fold saving. These results suggest the importance of addressing the HIV treatment needs of MSM in addition to cost-effectiveness of specific scale-up of treatment for MSM in the context of the mixed HIV epidemic observed in Nigeria.

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Volz EM, Romero-Severson E, Leitner T, 2017, Phylodynamic Inference across Epidemic Scales, MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION, Vol: 34, Pages: 1276-1288, ISSN: 0737-4038

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Aiello AE, Simanek AM, Eisenberg MC, Walsh AR, Davis B, Volz E, Cheng C, Rainey JJ, Uzicanin A, Gao H, Osgood N, Knowles D, Stanley K, Tarter K, Monto ASet al., 2016, Design and methods of a social network isolation study for reducing respiratory infection transmission: The eX-FLU cluster randomized trial, EPIDEMICS, Vol: 15, Pages: 38-55, ISSN: 1755-4365

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Volz E, Nowak R, Ndembi N, Kijak G, Baral S, Blattner W, Charurat Met al., 2016, Genetic Diversity of HIV Reveals the Epidemiological Role of High Risk Groups in Nigeria, 17th Annual International Meeting of the Institute-of-Human-Virology at the University-of-Maryland-School-of-Medicine, Publisher: LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS & WILKINS, Pages: 47-47, ISSN: 1525-4135

CONFERENCE PAPER

Romero-Severson EO, Volz E, Koopman JS, Leitner T, Ionides ELet al., 2015, Dynamic Variation in Sexual Contact Rates in a Cohort of HIV-Negative Gay Men., Am J Epidemiol, Vol: 182, Pages: 255-262

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission models that include variability in sexual behavior over time have shown increased incidence, prevalence, and acute-state transmission rates for a given population risk profile. This raises the question of whether dynamic variation in individual sexual behavior is a real phenomenon that can be observed and measured. To study this dynamic variation, we developed a model incorporating heterogeneity in both between-person and within-person sexual contact patterns. Using novel methodology that we call iterated filtering for longitudinal data, we fitted this model by maximum likelihood to longitudinal survey data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Collaborative HIV Seroincidence Study (1992-1995). We found evidence for individual heterogeneity in sexual behavior over time. We simulated an epidemic process and found that inclusion of empirically measured levels of dynamic variation in individual-level sexual behavior brought the theoretical predictions of HIV incidence into closer alignment with reality given the measured per-act probabilities of transmission. The methods developed here provide a framework for quantifying variation in sexual behaviors that helps in understanding the HIV epidemic among gay men.

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Rasmussen DA, Volz EM, Koelle K, 2014, Phylodynamic Inference for Structured Epidemiological Models, PLOS COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY, Vol: 10, ISSN: 1553-734X

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Romero-Severson EO, Meadors GD, Volz EM, 2014, A generating function approach to HIV transmission with dynamic contact rates., Math Model Nat Phenom, Vol: 9, Pages: 121-135, ISSN: 0973-5348

The basic reproduction number, R0, is often defined as the average number of infections generated by a newly infected individual in a fully susceptible population. The interpretation, meaning, and derivation of R0 are controversial. However, in the context of mean field models, R0 demarcates the epidemic threshold below which the infected population approaches zero in the limit of time. In this manner, R0 has been proposed as a method for understanding the relative impact of public health interventions with respect to disease eliminations from a theoretical perspective. The use of R0 is made more complex by both the strong dependency of R0 on the model form and the stochastic nature of transmission. A common assumption in models of HIV transmission that have closed form expressions for R0 is that a single individual's behavior is constant over time. In this paper we derive expressions for both R0 and probability of an epidemic in a finite population under the assumption that people periodically change their sexual behavior over time. We illustrate the use of generating functions as a general framework to model the effects of potentially complex assumptions on the number of transmissions generated by a newly infected person in a susceptible population. We find that the relationship between the probability of an epidemic and R0 is not straightforward, but, that as the rate of change in sexual behavior increases both R0 and the probability of an epidemic also decrease.

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Romero-Severson EO, Meadors GD, Volz EM, 2014, Erratum: A generating function approach to HIV transmission with dynamic contact rates (Mathematical Modelling of Natural Phenomena), Mathematical Modelling of Natural Phenomena, Vol: 9, Pages: 178-181, ISSN: 0973-5348

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Volz E, Pond S, 2014, Phylodynamic analysis of ebola virus in the 2014 sierra leone epidemic., PLoS Curr, Vol: 6

BACKGROUND: The Ebola virus (EBOV) epidemic in Western Africa is the largest in recorded history and control efforts have so far failed to stem the rapid growth in the number of infections. Mathematical models serve a key role in estimating epidemic growth rates and the reproduction number (R0) from surveillance data and, recently, molecular sequence data. Phylodynamic analysis of existing EBOV time-stamped sequence data may provide independent estimates of the unobserved number of infections, reveal recent epidemiological history, and provide insight into selective pressures acting upon viral genes. METHODS: We fit a series mathematical models of infectious disease dynamics to phylogenies estimated from 78 whole EBOV genomes collected from distinct patients in May and June of 2014 in Sierra Leone, and perform evolutionary analysis on these genomes combined with closely related EBOV genomes from previous outbreaks. Two analyses are conducted with values of the latent period that have been used in recent modelling efforts. We also examined the EBOV sequences for evidence of possible episodic adaptive molecular evolution during the 2014 outbreak. RESULTS: We find evidence for adaptive evolution affecting L and GP protein coding regions of the EBOV genome, which is unlikely to bias molecular clock and phylodynamic analyses. We estimate R0=2.40 (95% HPD:1.54-3.87 ) if the mean latent period is 5.3 days, and R0=3.81, (95% HPD:2.47-6.3) if the mean latent period is 12.7 days. The estimated coefficient of variation (CV) of the number of transmissions per infected host is very high, and a large proportion of infections yield no transmissions. CONCLUSIONS: Estimates of R0 are sensitive to the unknown latent infectious period which can not be reliably estimated from genetic data alone. EBOV phylogenies show significant evidence for superspreading and extreme variance in the number of transmissions per infected individual during the early epidemic in Sierra Leone.

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Volz EM, Frost SDW, 2014, Sampling through time and phylodynamic inference with coalescent and birth-death models, JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY INTERFACE, Vol: 11, ISSN: 1742-5689

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Alam SJ, Zhang X, Romero-Severson EO, Henry C, Zhong L, Volz EM, Brenner BG, Koopman JSet al., 2013, Detectable signals of episodic risk effects on acute HIV transmission: Strategies for analyzing transmission systems using genetic data, EPIDEMICS, Vol: 5, Pages: 44-55, ISSN: 1755-4365

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Frost SDW, Volz EM, 2013, Modelling tree shape and structure in viral phylodynamics, PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, Vol: 368, ISSN: 0962-8436

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Miller JC, Volz EM, 2013, Model hierarchies in edge-based compartmental modeling for infectious disease spread, JOURNAL OF MATHEMATICAL BIOLOGY, Vol: 67, Pages: 869-899, ISSN: 0303-6812

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Miller JC, Volz EM, 2013, Incorporating disease and population structure into models of SIR disease in contact networks., PLoS One, Vol: 8

We consider the recently introduced edge-based compartmental models (EBCM) for the spread of susceptible-infected-recovered (SIR) diseases in networks. These models differ from standard infectious disease models by focusing on the status of a random partner in the population, rather than a random individual. This change in focus leads to simple analytic models for the spread of SIR diseases in random networks with heterogeneous degree. In this paper we extend this approach to handle deviations of the disease or population from the simplistic assumptions of earlier work. We allow the population to have structure due to effects such as demographic features or multiple types of risk behavior. We allow the disease to have more complicated natural history. Although we introduce these modifications in the static network context, it is straightforward to incorporate them into dynamic network models. We also consider serosorting, which requires using dynamic network models. The basic methods we use to derive these generalizations are widely applicable, and so it is straightforward to introduce many other generalizations not considered here. Our goal is twofold: to provide a number of examples generalizing the EBCM method for various different population or disease structures and to provide insight into how to derive such a model under new sets of assumptions.

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Romero-Severson EO, Alam SJ, Volz E, Koopman Jet al., 2013, Acute-Stage Transmission of HIV: Effect of Volatile Contact Rates, EPIDEMIOLOGY, Vol: 24, Pages: 516-521, ISSN: 1044-3983

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Sadasivam RS, Cutrona SL, Volz E, Rao SR, Houston TKet al., 2013, Web-based Peer-Driven Chain Referrals for Smoking Cessation, MEDINFO 2013: PROCEEDINGS OF THE 14TH WORLD CONGRESS ON MEDICAL AND HEALTH INFORMATICS, PTS 1 AND 2, Vol: 192, Pages: 357-361, ISSN: 0926-9630

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Sadasivam RS, Volz EM, Kinney RL, Rao SR, Houston TKet al., 2013, Share2Quit: Web-Based Peer-Driven Referrals for Smoking Cessation., JMIR Res Protoc, Vol: 2, ISSN: 1929-0748

BACKGROUND: Smoking is the number one preventable cause of death in the United States. Effective Web-assisted tobacco interventions are often underutilized and require new and innovative engagement approaches. Web-based peer-driven chain referrals successfully used outside health care have the potential for increasing the reach of Internet interventions. OBJECTIVE: The objective of our study was to describe the protocol for the development and testing of proactive Web-based chain-referral tools for increasing the access to Decide2Quit.org, a Web-assisted tobacco intervention system. METHODS: We will build and refine proactive chain-referral tools, including email and Facebook referrals. In addition, we will implement respondent-driven sampling (RDS), a controlled chain-referral sampling technique designed to remove inherent biases in chain referrals and obtain a representative sample. We will begin our chain referrals with an initial recruitment of former and current smokers as seeds (initial participants) who will be trained to refer current smokers from their social network using the developed tools. In turn, these newly referred smokers will also be provided the tools to refer other smokers from their social networks. We will model predictors of referral success using sample weights from the RDS to estimate the success of the system in the targeted population. RESULTS: This protocol describes the evaluation of proactive Web-based chain-referral tools, which can be used in tobacco interventions to increase the access to hard-to-reach populations, for promoting smoking cessation. CONCLUSIONS: Share2Quit represents an innovative advancement by capitalizing on naturally occurring technology trends to recruit smokers to Web-assisted tobacco interventions.

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Volz EM, Frost SDW, 2013, Inferring the Source of Transmission with Phylogenetic Data, PLOS COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY, Vol: 9, ISSN: 1553-7358

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Volz EM, Ionides E, Romero-Severson EO, Brandt M-G, Mokotoff E, Koopman JSet al., 2013, HIV-1 Transmission during Early Infection in Men Who Have Sex with Men: A Phylodynamic Analysis, PLOS MEDICINE, Vol: 10, ISSN: 1549-1676

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Volz EM, Koelle K, Bedford T, 2013, Viral Phylodynamics, PLOS COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY, Vol: 9, ISSN: 1553-7358

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Bauermeister JA, Zimmerman MA, Johns MM, Glowacki P, Stoddard S, Volz Eet al., 2012, Innovative Recruitment Using Online Networks: Lessons Learned From an Online Study of Alcohol and Other Drug Use Utilizing a Web-Based, Respondent-Driven Sampling (webRDS) Strategy, JOURNAL OF STUDIES ON ALCOHOL AND DRUGS, Vol: 73, Pages: 834-838, ISSN: 1937-1888

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Miller JC, Slim AC, Volz EM, 2012, Edge-based compartmental modelling for infectious disease spread, JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY INTERFACE, Vol: 9, Pages: 890-906, ISSN: 1742-5689

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Romero-Severson EO, Alam SJ, Volz EM, Koopman JSet al., 2012, Heterogeneity in Number and Type of Sexual Contacts in a Gay Urban Cohort., Stat Commun Infect Dis, Vol: 4, ISSN: 1948-4690

HIV transmission models include heterogeneous individuals with different sexual behaviors including contact rates, mixing patterns, and sexual practices. However, heterogeneity can also exist within individuals over time. In this paper we analyze a two year prospective cohort of 882 gay men with observations at six month intervals focusing on heterogeneity both within and between individuals in sexual contact rates and sexual roles. The total number of sexual contacts made over the course of the study (mean 1.55 per month) are highly variable between individuals (standard deviation 9.82 per month) as expected. At the individual level, contacts were also heterogeneous over time. For a homogeneous count process the variance should scale with the mean; however, at the individual level the variance scaled with the square root of the mean implying the presence of heterogeneity within individuals over time. We also observed a high level of movement between dichotomous sexual roles (insertive/receptive, protected/unprotected, anal/oral, and HIV status of partners). On average periods of exclusively unprotected sexual contacted lasted 16 months. Our results suggest that future HIV models should consider heterogeneities both between and within individuals in sexual contact rates and sexual roles.

JOURNAL ARTICLE

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