Basic reproduction number - Wikipedia In epidemiology, the basic reproduction number of an infection can be thought of as the expected number of cases directly generated by one case in a population where all individuals are susceptible to infection.
The basic reproduction number is not to be confused with the effective reproduction number R which is the number of cases generated in the current state of a population, which does not have to be the uninfected state. By definition R0 cannot be modified through vaccination campaigns.
R0 is not a biological constant for a pathogen as it is also affected by other factors such as environmental conditions and the behaviour of the infected population.
Furthermore R0 values are usually estimated from mathematical models, and the estimated values are dependent on the model used and values of other parameters.
Thus values given in the literature make only sense in the given context and it is recommended not to use obsolete values or compare values based on different models.[13] R0 does not by itself give an estimate of how fast an infection spreads in the population.