Differential susceptibility and infectivity epidemic models (Q2493193)

The authors introduce and study a model for the spread of a disease in a randomly mixing population, which approaches a steady state in the absence of an infection. The total population is divided into three classes: susceptible, infective and recovered. The model proposed considers a combination of differential susceptibility and differential infectivity for the disease transmission. Explicit formulae for the reproductive number are derived in two cases: the number of contacts is either proportional to the total population size or is a constant. Stability analysis of the model is performed, showing that in both cases, the infection-free equilibrium is globally asymptotically stable when the reproductive number is less than one and there exists a unique endemic equilibrium if the reproductive number is greater than one. Numerical examples show that the unique endemic equilibrium is asymptotically stable, if it exists.