# 3585
Tonight from the Financial Times, a fascinating little graphic model for you to play with showing how quickly an infectious disease can spread around the world via air travel
You can change the parameters at the bottom of the screen, then click on any of the moving green dots (representing passengers) to start an infection. This is more of an illustration of how a `generic’ infectious disease might spread, than an accurate model of any specific disease outbreak.
Still, it is fascinating to watch.
A model of a pandemic
By FT graphics
Published: August 4 2009 17:36 | Last updated: August 4 2009 17:36
This interactive graphic gives a general visual idea of the way an infectious disease can spread around the world, reflecting transmission between people locally and extended by extensive international travel. It can be modified to give an idea of the severity, rapidity and extent of infection. For example, very provisional data for the current H1N1 swine flu pandemic suggests it could infect up to a third of the population, and cause deaths in up to 0.4 per cent of cases.
WARNING: This is not a predictive tool. It was created by the FT graphics department and is not based on any epidemiological model of a particular disease. It cannot show the precise pattern of spread or the relative risk of exposure in a particular location, and does not take into account specific factors that may affect disease, such as the effect of other infections in people, nutrition, genetic factors, the mechanisms of transmission, or medical support and quarantining. It does highlight the speed with which infection can spread globally in the 21st century.
After 12 hours
After 24 hours
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