Daozhou Gao
Cleveland State University
Abstract: Human movement not only facilitates disease spread but also poses a serious challenge to disease control and eradication. It is common to use patch models to describe the spatial spread of infectious diseases in a discrete space. The basic reproduction number R0 usually serves as a threshold for disease extinction and persistence. Thus, it is desirable to control population dispersal such that R0 is reduced to less than 1 to achieve disease eradication. However, in reality, disease eradication is extremely difficult or even impossible for most infectious diseases. Reducing disease prevalence (proportion of people being infected) to a low level is a more feasible and cost-effective goal. In this talk, based on an SIS patch model initially proposed and analyzed by Allen et al. (SIAM J Appl Math, 2007), I will explore the influence of dispersal intensity and dispersal asymmetry on the disease persistence and disease prevalence. Our study highlights the necessity of evaluating control measures with other quantities besides the basic reproduction number.
