Mathematical Study of the Role of Gametocytes and an Imperfect Vaccine on Malaria Transmission Dynamics. - Related Articles
Mathematical Study of the Role of Gametocytes and an Imperfect Vaccine on Malaria Transmission Dynamics.
Bull Math Biol. 2009 Jul 1;
Authors: Teboh-Ewungkem MI, Podder CN, Gumel AB
A mathematical model is developed to assess the role of gametocytes (the infectious sexual stage of the malaria parasite) in malaria transmission dynamics in a community. The model is rigorously analysed to gain insights into its dynamical features. It is shown that, in the absence of disease-induced mortality, the model has a globally-asymptotically stable disease-free equilibrium whenever a certain epidemiological threshold, known as the basic reproduction number (denoted by [Symbol: see text](0)), is less than unity. Further, it has a unique endemic equilibrium if [Symbol: see text](0)>1. The model is extended to incorporate an imperfect vaccine with some assumed therapeutic characteristics. Theoretical analyses of the model with vaccination show that an imperfect malaria vaccine could have negative or positive impact (in reducing disease burden) depending on whether or not a certain threshold (denoted by nabla) is less than unity. Numerical simulations of the vaccination model show that such an imperfect anti-malaria vaccine (with a modest efficacy and coverage rate) can lead to effective disease control if the reproduction threshold (denoted by [Symbol: see text](vac)) of the disease is reasonably small. On the other hand, the disease cannot be effectively controlled using such a vaccine if [Symbol: see text](vac) is high. Finally, it is shown that the average number of days spent in the class of infectious individuals with higher level of gametocyte is critically important to the malaria burden in the community.
PMID: 19568725 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] [PubMed-Malaria]