Fig. 3

The estimated total cumulative number of transmissions, future transmissions and the corresponding proportion of future transmissions at the time considered. The estimates are based on the Q fever outbreak in The Netherlands in 2007–2009 [12]. The total expected number of transmissions (left y-axis) is estimated using the total number of cases notified up until that week (x-axis) of the outbreak. The number of expected future transmissions (left y-axis) is estimated using the same information, but also incorporates the timing of the occurrence of the infections. The proportion of future transmissions (right y-axis) is calculated as the ratio of future transmissions to the total number of transmissions estimated at the end of each week of the outbreak