Forest-fire as a model for the dynamics of disease epidemics

We review recent studies on the modelling of epidemic processes using individual-based lattice epidemic models. Originally introduced to investigate the emergence of spatio-temporal organisation in non-linear dynamical systems they are usually termed “forest-fire” models. However, their interpretation as a representation of communicable disease spread is readily apparent and we show how, by analysing individual epidemic outbreaks, it is possible to gain insight into the spread of measles in certain small, largely susceptible, island population before the era of mass-vaccination.