Computational epidemiology is a big word that scientists use to help understand how diseases spread. Think of it like a puzzle where we try to figure out how many people get sick and how the sickness travels from one person to another. We use computers to help us solve this puzzle by looking at lots of information about people and the sickness. This information could include things like where people live, who they have been around, and how long they were around them.
To really understand how the sickness spreads, we use something called a model. A model is like a pretend world that we can change and play with to see what happens. Scientists use models to see how different parts of the puzzle fit together. For example, they might make a model of a playground and see how a sickness spreads from one kid to another as they play together. They could also look at a whole city and see how many people might get sick if lots of people from different areas are coming together.
Computational epidemiology helps us learn more about sicknesses and how to stop them from spreading. By learning about how the sickness spreads, we can make better decisions to prevent it from happening in the future.