Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Mathematics and Physics, College of Science, Zhengzhou University of Aeronautics, Zhengzhou 450015, PR China
  • 2 School of Informatics and Applied Mathematics, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Terengganu 21030, Malaysia
  • 3 Department of Mathematics and Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, 585 King Edward Ave, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada. Electronic address: rsmith43@uottawa.ca
Math Biosci, 2018 02;296:98-112.
PMID: 29273381 DOI: 10.1016/j.mbs.2017.12.002

Abstract

Mass-media reports on an epidemic or pandemic have the potential to modify human behaviour and affect social attitudes. Here we construct a Filippov model to evaluate the effects of media coverage and quarantine on the transmission dynamics of influenza. We first choose a piecewise smooth incidence rate to represent media reports being triggered once the number of infected individuals exceeds a certain critical level [Formula: see text] . Further, if the number of infected cases increases and exceeds another larger threshold value [Formula: see text] ( [Formula: see text] ), we consider that the incidence rate tends to a saturation level due to the protection measures taken by individuals; meanwhile, we begin to quarantine susceptible individuals when the number of susceptible individuals is larger than a threshold value Sc. Then, for each susceptible threshold value Sc, the global properties of the Filippov model with regard to the existence and stability of all possible equilibria and sliding-mode dynamics are examined, as we vary the infected threshold values [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] . We show generically that the Filippov system stabilizes at either the endemic equilibrium of the subsystem or the pseudoequilibrium on the switching surface or the endemic equilibrium [Formula: see text] depending on the choice of the threshold values. The findings suggest that proper combinations of infected and susceptible threshold values can maintain the number of infected individuals either below a certain threshold level or at a previously given level.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.