"A Two-Strain TB Model with Multiple Latent Stages" by Azizeh Jabbari, Carlos Castillo-Chavez et al.
 

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-1-2016

Journal / Book Title

Mathematical Biosciences & Engineering

Abstract

A two-strain tuberculosis (TB) transmission model incorporating antibiotic-generated TB resistant strains and long and variable waiting periods within the latently infected class is introduced. The mathematical analysis is carried out when the waiting periods are modeled via parametrically friendly gamma distributions, a reasonable alternative to the use of exponential distributed waiting periods or to integral equations involving "arbitrary" distributions. The model supports a globally-asymptotically stable disease-free equilibrium when the reproduction number is less than one and an endemic equilibriums, shown to be locally asymptotically stable, or l.a.s., whenever the basic reproduction number is greater than one. Conditions for the existence and maintenance of TB resistant strains are discussed. The possibility of exogenous re-infection is added and shown to be capable of supporting multiple equilibria; a situation that increases the challenges faced by public health experts. We show that exogenous re-infection may help established resilient communities of actively-TB infected individuals that cannot be eliminated using approaches based exclusively on the ability to bring the control reproductive number just below 1.

Comments

This article is Open Access and distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)

DOI

10.3934/mbe.2016017

Published Citation

Jabbari, A., Castillo-Chavez, C., Nazari, F., Song, B., & Kheiri, H. (2016). A two-strain TB model with multiple latent stages. Mathematical Biosciences & Engineering, 13(4), 741.

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