Vector-Borne Disease Models with Active and Inactive Vectors: A Simple Way to Consider Biting Behavior

SIMOY, MARIO IGNACIO; APARICIO, JUAN PABLO

BULLETIN OF MATHEMATICAL BIOLOGY

SPRINGER

Año: 2022 vol. 84

0092-8240

Vector-borne diseases are a serious public health problem, mosquitoes being one ofthe most important vectors. To analyze the dynamics of this type of disease, Ross?Macdonald models are commonly used. In its simplest formulation and the mostcommon in scientific literature, it is assumed that all mosquitoes are biting at a givenrate. To improve this general assumption, we developed a vector-borne disease modelwith active and inactive vectors as a simple way to incorporate the more general characteristicsof mosquito feeding behavior into disease dynamics. Our objective is toobtain an estimate of the Ross?Macdonald biting rate from the feeding parametersthat reproduce the same dynamics as the model with active and inactive vectors. Twodifferent cases were analyzed: a SIS?SI model and a SIR?SI model with a single epidemic.Different methods to estimate the biting rate in the Ross?Macdonald modelwere proposed and analyzed. To compare the results of the models, different epidemiologicalindicators were considered. When the biting rate is estimated considering thatboth models have the same basic reproduction number, very similar disease dynamicsare obtained. This method is a simple way to incorporate the mosquito feedingbehavior into the standard Ross?Macdonald model.