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Application of advanced statistical methods in infectious diseases

Guest Editors

Zhongjie Shi, MD, PhD, Wayne State University, USA
Sergei S. Simakov, PhD, DSc, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Russia


BMC Infectious Diseases called for submissions to our Collection on Application of advanced statistical methods in infectious diseases.  This collection aimed to highlight the innovative use of statistical methods beyond traditional approaches, thereby advancing our understanding of infectious diseases and improving public health interventions. We welcomed submissions addressing but not limited to: advanced statistical methods in infectious diseases, including bioinformatics analysis, machine learning, Bayesian methods, network analysis, spatial and spatio-temporal methods, longitudinal data analysis, multivariate techniques, data integration, meta-analysis, statistical modeling of vaccine efficacy and emerging infectious diseases.

Meet the Guest Editors

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Zhongjie Shi, MD, PhD, Wayne State University, USA

Dr Zhongjie Shi is an assistant professor at Wayne State University, USA. His research interests include Ob & Gyn, pediatrics, infectious diseases, especially focusing on the interruption of mother-to-child transmission of viruses, as well as perinatal infectious diseases that could lead to neurological disability in children.


Sergei S. Simakov, PhD, DSc, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Russia

Dr Sergei S. Simakov is an associate professor and the chair leading the Department of Computational Physics at Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), Russia, as well as an associate professor at Laboratory of Mathematical Modelling in Medicine, Sechenov University, Russia. Being a principle investigator of many national research projects, he is an expert in developing mathematical models, discretization methods in biomedicine, global transport processes in human, environmental effects on human, graph layout algorithms.


About the Collection

BMC Infectious Diseases is calling for submissions to our Collection on Application of advanced statistical methods in infectious diseases. 

Statistical methods play a crucial role in understanding and combating infectious diseases, especially during the global pandemic of Covid-19. While the basic t-tests and Chi-square tests have been widely used in most biomedical research, there is a growing need to explore and apply more advanced statistical techniques. This Collection aims to highlight the innovative use of statistical methods beyond traditional approaches, thereby advancing our understanding of infectious diseases and improving public health interventions.

We welcome submissions covering a broad range of topics related to the application of advanced statistical methods in infectious diseases. Potential areas of interest are exemplified as:

  • Bioinformatics analysis of infectious diseases data
  • Machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques in infectious diseases research
  • Bayesian methods and their applications in infectious diseases modeling
  • Network analysis and modeling in infectious diseases epidemiology 
  • Spatial and spatio-temporal statistical methods in infectious diseases research
  • Longitudinal data analysis and prediction modeling in infectious diseases
  • Multivariate statistical techniques for analyzing complex infectious diseases datasets
  • Data integration and meta-analysis approaches in infectious diseases research
  • Advanced statistical methods for assessing vaccine efficacy and effectiveness
  • Advanced statistical modeling of emerging infectious diseases and outbreak investigations


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  1. Several studies explored factors related to adverse clinical outcomes among COVID-19 patients but lacked analysis of the impact of the temporal data shifts on the strength of association between different pred...

    Authors: Fernanda Cristina Barbosa Lana, Carolina Coimbra Marinho, Bruno Barbosa Miranda de Paiva, Lucas Rocha Valle, Guilherme Fonseca do Nascimento, Leonardo Chaves Dutra da Rocha, Marcelo Carneiro, Joanna d‘Arc Lyra Batista, Fernando Anschau, Pedro Gibson Paraiso, Frederico Bartolazzi, Christiane Corrêa Rodrigues Cimini, Alexandre Vargas Schwarzbold, Danyelle Romana Alves Rios, Marcos André Gonçalves and Milena Soriano Marcolino
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2025 25:537
    Content type: Research Published on:

  2. This study aims to identify and rank the key risk factors associated with the Zika virus by leveraging a novel multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) framework based on type-2 heptagonal fuzzy sets. By integrat...

    Authors: M. Sheela Rani and S. Dhanasekar
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2025 25:450
    Content type: Research Published on:

  3. Malaria is a significant public health problem, particularly among children aged 6–59 months who bear the greatest burden of the disease. Malaria transmission is high and more pronounced in poor tropical and s...

    Authors: Wisdom Kwami Takramah, Yaw Asare Afrane and Justice Moses K. Aheto
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2025 25:430
    Content type: Research Published on:

  5. The bidirectional association of HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis (TB) presents significant global health challenges. However, the relationship between these dual epidemics and the heterogeneity in their mortality ra...

    Authors: Tofigh Mobaderi, Anoshirvan Kazemnejad and Masoud Salehi
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2025 25:330
    Content type: Research Published on:

  6. Precision in detecting pathogens in sepsis patients is crucial for deploying targeted therapeutic strategies. The objective of the present investigation was to assess the efficacy of targeted nanopore sequenci...

    Authors: Mingdi Chen, Lei Bao, Yu Qian, Ye Chen, Jie Zhang, Yi Li and Xin Liu
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2025 25:259
    Content type: Research Published on:

  7. Understanding the impact of public health and social measures (PHSMs) on influenza transmission is crucial for developing effective influenza prevention and control strategies.

    Authors: Jing Du, Lei Jia, Yanlin Gao, Jianting Su, Chao Wang, Xinghuo Pang and Gang Li
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2025 25:150
    Content type: Research Published on:

  8. Drivers of COVID-19 severity are multifactorial and include multidimensional and potentially interacting factors encompassing viral determinants and host-related factors (i.e., demographics, pre-existing condi...

    Authors: Kuganya Nirmalarajah, Patryk Aftanas, Shiva Barati, Emily Chien, Gloria Crowl, Amna Faheem, Lubna Farooqi, Alainna J. Jamal, Saman Khan, Jonathon D. Kotwa, Angel X. Li, Mohammad Mozafarihashjin, Jalees A. Nasir, Altynay Shigayeva, Winfield Yim, Lily Yip…
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2025 25:132
    Content type: Research Published on:

  9. Cirrhosis has been pointed out as a clinical entity that leads to worse clinical prognosis in COVID-19 patients. However, this concept is controversial in the literature. We aimed to evaluate clinical outcomes...

    Authors: Luanna Silva Monteiro Menezes, Pedro Ferrari Sales da Cunha, Magda Carvalho Pires, Lucas Rocha Valle, Flávia Carvalho Cardoso Costa, Maria Angélica Pires Ferreira, Milton Henriques Guimarães Júnior, Saionara Cristina Francisco, Marcelo Carneiro, Daniel Vitório Silveira, Fernando Graça Aranha, Rafael Lima Rodrigues de Carvalho, Teresa Cristina de Abreu Ferrari and Milena Soriano Marcolino
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2025 25:68
    Content type: Research Published on:

  10. Intestinal parasite infections remain a serious public health concern around the world, particularly in countries with inadequate sanitation. The study aims to ascertain the total magnitude of intestinal paras...

    Authors: Marye Nigatie Debash, Getinet Kumie, Assefa Sisay, Solomon Gedfie, Wagaw Abebe, Agenagnew Ashagre, Tadesse Misganaw, Habtu Debash and Melese Abate Reta
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2025 25:54
    Content type: Systematic Review Published on:

  11. The incidence of mosquito-borne infections has increased worldwide. Mainland Portugal’s characteristics might favour the (re)emergence of mosquito-borne diseases. This study aimed to characterize the spatial d...

    Authors: Sandra Moutinho, Jorge Rocha, Alberto Gomes, Bernardo Gomes and Ana Isabel Ribeiro
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2025 25:45
    Content type: Research Published on:

  12. Efforts toward tuberculosis management and control are challenged by the emergence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) resistance to existing anti-TB drugs. This study aimed to explore the potential of machine le...

    Authors: Sandra Ruth Babirye, Mike Nsubuga, Gerald Mboowa, Charles Batte, Ronald Galiwango and David Patrick Kateete
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2024 24:1391
    Content type: Research Published on:

  13. Measles is an extremely contagious viral disease that can be prevented through vaccination. It is caused by the measles virus and presents with symptoms such as high fever, cough, runny nose, conjunctivitis, a...

    Authors: Demeke Endalamaw, Endalkachew Nibret, Abaineh Munshea, Feleke Mekonnen, Senait Tadesse, Taye Zeru, Mesfine Tefera and Gizachew Yismaw
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2024 24:1330
    Content type: Systematic Review Published on:

  14. Serological diagnostic tests are available that measure antibody levels against SARS-CoV-2 antigens. We utilized the Vaxarray Coronavirus (CoV) seroassay, which measures SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies against the f...

    Authors: Francisco Mimica Porras, Gabriel Pineda, Abigail Mangilog, Keith Hernandez, Cynthia Sikorski and Michelle Lane
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2024 24:1308
    Content type: Research Published on:

  15. COVID-19 vaccines effectively prevent infection and hospitalization. However, few population-based studies have compared the clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 using ad...

    Authors: Eduardo Villela de Moraes, Magda Carvalho Pires, Amanda Abrantes Abreu Costa, Aline Gabrielle Sousa Nunes, Caroline Lopes de Amorim, Euler Roberto Fernandes Manenti, Fernanda Barbosa Lucas, Fernanda d’Athayde Rodrigues, Fernando Anschau, Guilherme Fonseca do Nascimento, Giovanna Grunewald Vietta, Jessica Fernandes Benavides Moreira, Karen Brasil Ruschel, Monica Aparecida Costa, Pamela Andrea Alves Duraes, Pedro Augusto Van Der Sand Germani…
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2024 24:1052
    Content type: Research Published on:

  16. Though, many countries are currently in the COVID post-pandemic era, people’s health protective behaviours are still essential to protect their health and well-being. This study aims to evaluate people’s under...

    Authors: Piyapong Janmaimool, Jaruwan Chontanawat, Siriphan Nunsunanon and Surapong Chudech
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2024 24:887
    Content type: Research Published on:

  17. Pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) is a prevalent chronic disease associated with a significant economic burden on patients. Using machine learning to predict hospitalization costs can allocate medical resources eff...

    Authors: Shiyu Fan, Abudoukeyoumujiang Abulizi, Yi You, Chencui Huang, Yasen Yimit, Qiange Li, Xiaoguang Zou and Mayidili Nijiati
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2024 24:875
    Content type: Research Published on:

  18. Describing the transmission dynamics of infectious diseases across different regions is crucial for effective disease surveillance. The multivariate time series (MTS) model has been widely adopted for construc...

    Authors: Jie Yu, Huimin Wang, Miaoshuang Chen, Xinyue Han, Qiao Deng, Chen Yang, Wenhui Zhu, Yue Ma, Fei Yin, Yang Weng, Changhong Yang and Tao Zhang
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2024 24:832
    Content type: Research Published on:

  19. Predicting an individual’s risk of death from COVID-19 is essential for planning and optimising resources. However, since the real-world mortality rate is relatively low, particularly in places like Hong Kong,...

    Authors: Jie Lian, Fan Huang, Xinhai Huang, Kitty Yu-Yeung Lau, Kei Shing Ng, Carlin Chun Fai Chu, Simon Ching Lam, Mohamad Koohli-Moghadam and Varut Vardhanabhuti
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2024 24:803
    Content type: Research Published on:

  20. Students in school are more likely to be sick from communicable diseases like diarrheal illnesses, acute respiratory infections, and other illnesses linked to poor personal hygiene. Poor hygiene practices are ...

    Authors: Getaneh Haile Minda, Habiteyes Hailu Tola, Abebe Feyissa Amhare, Asefa Kebie and Tewodros Endale
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2024 24:781
    Content type: Research Published on:

  21. Spatiotemporal analysis is a vital method that plays an indispensable role in monitoring epidemiological changes in diseases and identifying high-risk clusters. However, there is still a blank space in the spa...

    Authors: Shuishui Pan, Lili Chen, Xin Xin, Shihong Li, Yixing Zhang, Yichen Chen and Shaotan Xiao
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2024 24:761
    Content type: Research Published on:

  22. To analyze the clinicopathological features of schistosomal and non-schistosomal colorectal cancer in Central China and compare them with other areas of the Yangtze River Basin.

    Authors: Yuanting Zhu, Xiaoxue Wu, Xiaoshan Ran, Chun Rao and Ping Gong
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2024 24:732
    Content type: Research Published on:

  23. There is a need to understand the relationship between COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma (CCP) anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG levels and clinical outcomes to optimize CCP use. This study aims to evaluate the relationship betw...

    Authors: Hyung Park, Chang Yu, Liise-anne Pirofski, Hyunah Yoon, Danni Wu, Yi Li, Thaddeus Tarpey, Eva Petkova, Elliott M. Antman and Andrea B. Troxel
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2024 24:639
    Content type: Research Published on:

  24. The COVID-19 pandemic has presented unprecedented public health challenges worldwide. Understanding the factors contributing to COVID-19 mortality is critical for effective management and intervention strategi...

    Authors: Maryam Seyedtabib, Roya Najafi-Vosough and Naser Kamyari
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2024 24:411
    Content type: Research Published on:

  25. Infectious diarrhea remains a major public health problem worldwide. This study used stacking ensemble to developed a predictive model for the incidence of infectious diarrhea, aiming to achieve better predict...

    Authors: Pengyu Wang, Wangjian Zhang, Hui Wang, Congxing Shi, Zhiqiang Li, Dahu Wang, Lei Luo, Zhicheng Du and Yuantao Hao
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2024 24:265
    Content type: Research Published on:

  26. Gonorrhea has long been a serious public health problem in mainland China that requires attention, modeling to describe and predict its prevalence patterns can help the government to develop more scientific in...

    Authors: Zhende Wang, Yongbin Wang, Shengkui Zhang, Suzhen Wang, Zhen Xu and ZiJian Feng
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2024 24:113
    Content type: Research Published on:

  27. Brucellosis poses a significant public health concern. This study explores the spatial and temporal dynamic evolution of human brucellosis in China and analyses the spatial heterogeneity of the influencing fac...

    Authors: Meng Zhang, Xinrui Chen, Qingqing Bu, Bo Tan, Tong Yang, Liyuan Qing, Yunna Wang and Dan Deng
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2024 24:76
    Content type: Research Published on:

  28. Uganda has a high incidence and prevalence of tuberculosis (TB). Analysis of spatial and temporal distribution of TB is an important tool for supporting spatial decision-making, planning, and policy formulatio...

    Authors: Freda Loy Aceng, Steven Ndugwa Kabwama, Alex Riolexus Ario, Alfred Etwom, Stavia Turyahabwe and Frank Rwabinumi Mugabe
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2024 24:46
    Content type: Research Published on:

  29. Remdesivir (RDV) is an antiviral agent approved for the treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); however, is not recommended for patients with renal impairment. Due to limitations associated with pros...

    Authors: Eunmi Yang, Han Zo Choi, Subin Kim, Dong Hyun Oh, Mi Young Ahn, Sinyoung Ham, Eunyoung Lee, Jaehyun Jeon, Min-Kyung Kim, Hee-Chang Jang, Sang-Won Park and Jae-Phil Choi
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2024 24:3
    Content type: Research Published on:

  30. Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is an emerging infectious disease discovered in China in 2009. The purpose of this study was to describe the spatiotemporal distribution of SFTS and to identi...

    Authors: Qing Duan, Xueying Tian, Bo Pang, Yuwei Zhang, Chuanhao Xiao, Mingxiao Yao, Shujun Ding, Xiaomei Zhang, Xiaolin Jiang and Zengqiang Kou
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2023 23:891
    Content type: Research Published on:

  32. Opioid use disorder (OUD) has been associated with adverse health outcomes, and its potential impact on COVID-19 outcomes is of significant concern. This study aimed to assess the susceptibility and clinical o...

    Authors: Mojtaba Hedayatyaghoobi, Mehdi Azizmohammad Looha, Arman Shafiee, Kyana Jafarabady, Omid Safari, Amirhesam Alirezaei and Mahmood Bakhtiyari
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2023 23:851
    Content type: Research Published on:

Submission Guidelines

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This Collection welcomes submission of original Research Articles. Should you wish to submit a different article type, please read our submission guidelines to confirm that type is accepted by the journal. Articles for this Collection should be submitted via our submission system, Snapp. During the submission process you will be asked whether you are submitting to a Collection, please select "Application of advanced statistical methods in infectious diseases" from the dropdown menu.

Articles will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process and are subject to all of the journal’s standard policies. Articles will be added to the Collection as they are published.

The Editors have no competing interests with the submissions which they handle through the peer review process. The peer review of any submissions for which the Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editorial Board Member who has no competing interests.