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Geographic variables play an important role in the study of epidemics. The role of one such variable, population density, in the spread of influenza is controversial.
Prior studies have tested for such a role using arbitrary thresholds for population density above or below which places are hypothesized to have higher or lower mortality. The results of such studies are mixed.
The objective of this study is to estimate, rather than assume, a threshold level of population density that separates low-density regions from high-density regions on the basis of population loss during an influenza pandemic. We study the case of the influenza pandemic of 1918--19 in India, where over 15 million people died in the short span of less than one year.
Pandemic recombinant influenza virus graphic from Russell Kightley Media
This analysis focuses on population density in regards to the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919. After extensive research and experimenting, researchers found that "districts on the low side of the threshold experienced rates of population loss (3.72%) that were lower than districts on the high side of the threshold (4.69%)". With the results from these experiments, geographers will be able to predict future pandemic patterns in population and how to stop virus at form spreading further. By determining techniques to stop the pandemic while observing the population density of the outbreak, they might be able to successfully stop the disease at its source. Personally, I see this as not only a medical break through, but a geographical innovation that allows us to study population density in a much more extensive fashion.