Figure 1.

Possible epidemiological patterns for diseases with epidemic potential, as demonstrated by MERS Co-V cases in three different regions. In each of these regions, the possible number of patients eligible for recruitment and the time in which to enrol them differ markedly, despite the same causative pathogen: (a) small intermittent outbreaks over time, (b) small intermittent outbreaks followed (at marked time point) by a propagated outbreak and (c) propagated outbreak. Data adapted from that publicly available at https://public.tableau.com/profile/ian.m.mackay#!/vizhome/MERS-CoV_0/.