Optimal timing of disease transmission in an age-structured population

Timothy C. Reluga; Jan Medlock; Eric Poolman; Alison P. Galvani

doi:10.1007/s11538-007-9238-5

Optimal timing of disease transmission in an age-structured population

Timothy C. Reluga, Jan Medlock, Eric Poolman, Alison P. Galvani

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

It is a common medical folk-practice for parents to encourage their children to contract certain infectious diseases while they are young. This folk-practice is controversial, in part, because it contradicts the long-term public health goal of minimizing disease incidence. We study an epidemiological model of infectious disease in an age-structured population where virulence is age-dependent and show that, in some cases, the optimal behavior will increase disease transmission. This provides a rigorous justification of the concept of "endemic stability," and demonstrates that folk-practices may have been historically justified.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	2711-2722
Number of pages	12
Journal	Bulletin of Mathematical Biology
Volume	69
Issue number	8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s11538-007-9238-5
State	Published - Nov 2007

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Neuroscience(all)
Immunology
Mathematics(all)
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology(all)
Environmental Science(all)
Pharmacology
Agricultural and Biological Sciences(all)
Computational Theory and Mathematics

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1007/s11538-007-9238-5

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Optimal timing of disease transmission in an age-structured population

Abstract

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

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