Parameter Estimation and Validation for an Epidemic Model

In an earlier report [2] a general model for common source epidemics was developed and subsequently [3] specialized to an outbreak of toxoplasmosis. The model for infection developed in [4] can be used to refine the results in [3] and provide a stronger physiological basis for the study. In this paper we use epidemiological data collected in the toxoplasmosis outbreak, in particular the daily onset data, to estimate the experimental parameters of the model. We then validate the model with respect to its predictive ability.