Modeling the Complexity of Viral and Bacterial Coinfections with Influenza

Secondary viral and bacterial pathogens exacerbate influenza to cause significant morbidity and mortality. However, the outcome is dependent on the order and timing of each pathogen, where protection from influenza is observed in some scenarios. While experimental methods can be used to identify mechanisms of multi-pathogen infections, mathematical models provide a unique lens to determine their contribution to susceptibility and pathogenicity and define hidden mechanisms. I’ll discuss an integrative model-experiment exchange that we used to disentangle pathogen-specific effects on host immunity, dissemination within the lung, and disease severity during bacterial or viral coinfections during influenza.