Global asymptotic stability for the disease free equilibrium for epidemiological models (Q2570043)

The authors consider (nonlinear) differential equations of the form \[ \dot{x}_1 = A_1(x) (x_1-x_1^\ast) + A_{12}(x) x_2, \quad \dot{x}_2 = A_2(x) x_2, \] which arise in modelling epidemiological problems. They give sufficient conditions for the global asymptotic stability of the ``disease free equilibrium'' \((x_1^\ast,0)\). One of these is the stability of a certain matrix. A proposition is given, which allows for an iterative process to obtain conditions for the stability of matrices. The results are applied to two concrete models from the literature. Finally, a model for the dynamics of malaria transmissions is considered and conditions for the global asymptotic stability of the disease free equilibrium are studied. The mathematical results and their applications to epidemiological models seem interesting; the paper lacks of mathematical clarity.