Ebola model and optimal control with vaccination constraints

Modeling Supply and Demand Dynamics of Vaccines against Epidemic-Prone Pathogens: Case Study of Ebola Virus Disease

Health emergencies caused by epidemic-prone pathogens (EPPs) have increased exponentially in recent decades. Although vaccines have proven beneficial, they are unavailable for many pathogens. Furthermore, achieving timely and equitable access to vaccines against EPPs is not trivial. It requires decision-makers to capture numerous interrelated factors across temporal and spatial scales, with significant uncertainties, variability, delays, and feedback loops that give rise to dynamic and unexpected behavior. Therefore, despite progress in filling R&D gaps, the path to licensure and the long-term viability of vaccines against EPPs continues to be unclear. This paper presents a quantitative system dynamics modeling framework to evaluate the long-term sustainability of vaccine supply under different vaccination strategies. Data from both literature and 50 expert interviews are used to model the supply and demand of a prototypical Ebolavirus Zaire (EBOV) vaccine. Specifically, the case study evaluates dynamics associated with proactive vaccination ahead of an outbreak of similar magnitude as the 2018-2020 epidemic in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo. The scenarios presented demonstrate how uncertainties (e.g., duration of vaccine-induced protection) and design criteria (e.g., priority geographies and groups, target coverage, frequency of boosters) lead to important tradeoffs across policy aims, public health outcomes, and feasibility (e.g., technical, operational, financial). With sufficient context and data, the framework provides a foundation to apply the model to a broad range of additional geographies and priority pathogens. Furthermore, the ability to identify leverage points for long-term preparedness offers directions for further research.

Predictive dynamical modeling and stability of the equilibria in a discrete fractional difference COVID-19 epidemic model

The SARSCoV-2 virus, also known as the coronavirus-2, is the consequence of COVID-19, a severe acute respiratory syndrome. Droplets from an infectious individual are how the pathogen is transmitted from one individual to another and occasionally, these particles can contain toxic textures that could also serve as an entry point for the pathogen. We formed a discrete fractional-order COVID-19 framework for this investigation using information and inferences from Thailand. To combat the illnesses, the region has implemented mandatory vaccination, interpersonal stratification and mask distribution programs. As a result, we divided the vulnerable people into two groups: those who support the initiatives and those who do not take the influence regulations seriously. We analyze endemic problems and common data while demonstrating the threshold evolution defined by the fundamental reproductive quantity R 0 . Employing the mean general interval, we have evaluated the configuration value systems in our framework. Such a framework has been shown to be adaptable to changing pathogen populations over time. The Picard Lindelöf technique is applied to determine the existence-uniqueness of the solution for the proposed scheme. In light of the relationship between the R 0 and the consistency of the fixed points in this framework, several theoretical conclusions are made. Numerous numerical simulations are conducted to validate the outcome.

A new comparative study on the general fractional model of COVID-19 with isolation and quarantine effects

A generalized version of fractional models is introduced for the COVID-19 pandemic, including the effects of isolation and quarantine. First, the general structure of fractional derivatives and integrals is discussed; then the generalized fractional model is defined from which the stability results are derived. Meanwhile, a set of real clinical observations from China is considered to determine the parameters and compute the basic reproduction number, i.e., R0≈6.6361. Additionally, an efficient numerical technique is applied to simulate the new model and provide the associated numerical results. Based on these simulations, some figures and tables are presented, and the data of reported cases from China are compared with the numerical findings in both classical and fractional frameworks. Our comparative study indicates that a particular case of general fractional formula provides a better fit to the real data compared to the other classical and fractional models. There are also some other key parameters to be examined that show the health of society when they come to eliminate the disease.

Set-Valued Control to COVID-19 Spread with Treatment and Limitation of Vaccination Resources

In this paper, we consider an SEIR model that describes the dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic. Subject to this model with vaccination and treatment as controls, we formulate a control problem that aims to reduce the number of infectious individuals to zero. The novelty of this work consists of considering a more realistic control problem by adding mixed constraints to take into account the limited vaccines supply. Furthermore, to solve this problem, we use a set-valued approach combining a Lyapunov function defined in the sense of viability theory with some results from the set-valued analysis. The expressions of the control variables are given via continuous selection of an adequately designed feedback map. The main result of our study shows that even though there are limits of vaccination resources, the combination of treatment and vaccination strategies can significantly reduce the number of exposed and infectious individuals. Some numerical simulations are proposed to show the efficiency of our set-valued approach and to validate our theoretical results.

Mathematical analysis of a model of Ebola disease with control measures

The re-emergence of the Ebola virus disease has pushed researchers to investigate more on this highly deadly disease in order to better understand and control the outbreak and recurrence of epidemics. It is in this perspective that we formulate a realistic mathematical model for the dynamic transmission of Ebola virus disease, incorporating relevant control measures and factors such as ban on eating bush-meat, social distancing, observance of hygiene rules and containment, waning of the vaccine-induced, imperfect contact tracing and vaccine efficacy, quarantine, hospitalization and screening to fight against the spread of the disease. First, by considering the constant control parameters case, we thoroughly compute the control reproduction number [Formula: see text] from which the dynamics of the model is analyzed. The existence and stability of steady states are established under appropriate assumptions on [Formula: see text]. Also, the effect of all the control measures is investigated and the global sensitivity analysis of the control reproduction number is performed in order to determine the impact of parameters and their relative importance to disease transmission and prevalence. Second, in the time-dependent control parameters case, an optimal control problem is formulated to design optimal control strategies for eradicating the disease transmission. Using Pontryagin’s Maximum Principle, we derive necessary conditions for optimal control of the disease. The cost-effectiveness analysis of all combinations of the control measures is made by calculating the infection averted ratio and the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio. This reveals that combining the four restrictive measures conveyed through educational campaigns, screening, safe burial and the care of patients in health centers for better isolation is the most cost-effective among the strategies considered. Numerical simulations are performed to illustrate the theoretical results obtained.

Transport and optimal control of vaccination dynamics for COVID-19

We develop a mathematical model for transferring the vaccine BNT162b2 based on the heat diffusion equation. Then, we apply optimal control theory to the proposed generalized SEIR model. We introduce vaccination for the susceptible population to control the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic. For this, we use the Pontryagin minimum principle to find the necessary optimality conditions for the optimal control. The optimal control problem and the heat diffusion equation are solved numerically. Finally, several simulations are done to study and predict the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy. In particular, we compare the model in the presence and absence of vaccination.

An optimal control model to design strategies for reducing the spread of the Ebola virus disease

In this work, we formulate an epidemiological model for studying the spread of Ebola virus disease in a considered territory. This model includes the effect of various control measures, such as: vaccination, education campaigns, early detection campaigns, increase of sanitary measures in hospital, quarantine of infected individuals and restriction of movement between geographical areas. Using optimal control theory, we determine an optimal control strategy which aims to reduce the number of infected individuals, according to some operative restrictions (e.g., economical, logistic, etc.). Furthermore, we study the existence and uniqueness of the optimal control. Finally, we illustrate the interest of the obtained results by considering numerical experiments based on real data.

Mathematical analysis for the effect of voluntary vaccination on the propagation of Corona virus pandemic

In this manuscript, a new nonlinear model for the rapidly spreading Corona virus disease (COVID-19) is developed. We incorporate an additional class of vaccinated humans which ascertains the impact of vaccination strategy for susceptible humans. A complete mathematical analysis of this model is conducted to predict the dynamics of Corona virus in the population. The analysis proves the effectiveness of vaccination strategy employed and helps public health services to control or to reduce the burden of corona virus pandemic. We first prove the existence and uniqueness and then boundedness and positivity of solutions. Threshold parameter for the vaccination model is computed analytically. Stability of the proposed model at fixed points is investigated analytically with the help of threshold parameter to examine epidemiological relevance of the pandemic. We apply LaSalle's invariance principle from the theory of Lyapunov function to prove the global stability of both the equilibria. Two well known numerical techniques namely Runge-Kutta method of order 4 (RK4), and the Non-Standard Finite Difference (NSFD) method are employed to solve the system of ODE's and to validate our obtained theoretical results. For different coverage levels of voluntary vaccination, we explored a complete quantitative analysis of the model. To draw our conclusions, the effect of proposed vaccination on threshold parameter is studied numerically. It is claimed that Corona virus disease could be eradicated faster if a human community selfishly adopts mandatory vaccination measures at various coverage levels with proper awareness. Finally, we have executed the joint variability of all classes to understand the effect of vaccination strategy on a disease dynamics.

Forecasting the Effects of the New SARS-CoV-2 Variant in Europe

Due to the emergence of a new SARS-CoV-2 variant, we use a previous model to simulate the behaviour of this new SARS-CoV-2 variant. The analysis and simulations are performed for Europe, in order to provide a global analysis of the pandemic. In this context, numerical results are obtained in the first 100 days of the pandemic assuming an infectivity of 70%, 56%, and 35%, respectively, higher for the new SAR-CoV-2 variant, as compared with the real data.

Determination in Galicia of the required beds at Intensive Care Units

By using a recent mathematical compartmental model that includes the super-spreader class and developed by Ndaïrou, Area, Nieto, and Torres, a procedure to estimate in advance the number of required beds at intensive care units is presented. Numerical simulations are performed to show the accuracy of the predictions as compared with the real data in Galicia.

An efficient spectral collocation method for the dynamic simulation of the fractional epidemiological model of the Ebola virus

This article investigates a family of approximate solutions for the fractional model (in the Liouville-Caputo sense) of the Ebola virus via an accurate numerical procedure (Chebyshev spectral collocation method). We reduce the proposed epidemiological model to a system of algebraic equations with the help of the properties of the Chebyshev polynomials of the third kind. Some theorems about the convergence analysis and the existence-uniqueness solution are stated. Finally, some numerical simulations are presented for different values of the fractional-order and the other parameters involved in the coefficients. We also note that we can apply the proposed method to solve other models.

Numerical Simulation of the Fractal-Fractional Ebola Virus

In this work we present three new models of the fractal-fractional Ebola virus. We investigate the numerical solutions of the fractal-fractional Ebola virus in the sense of three different kernels based on the power law, the exponential decay and the generalized Mittag-Leffler function by using the concepts of the fractal differentiation and fractional differentiation. These operators have two parameters: The first parameter ρ is considered as the fractal dimension and the second parameter k is the fractional order. We evaluate the numerical solutions of the fractal-fractional Ebola virus for these operators with the theory of fractional calculus and the help of the Lagrange polynomial functions. In the case of ρ=k=1, all of the numerical solutions based on the power kernel, the exponential kernel and the generalized Mittag-Leffler kernel are found to be close to each other and, therefore, one of the kernels is compared with such numerical methods as the finite difference methods. This has led to an excellent agreement. For the effect of fractal-fractional on the behavior, we study the numerical solutions for different values of ρ and k. All calculations in this work are accomplished by using the Mathematica package.

A Comparative Study of the Fractional-Order Clock Chemical Model

In this paper, a comparative study has been made between different algorithms to find the numerical solutions of the fractional-order clock chemical model (FOCCM). The spectral collocation method (SCM) with the shifted Legendre polynomials, the two-stage fractional Runge–Kutta method (TSFRK) and the four-stage fractional Runge–Kutta method (FSFRK) are used to approximate the numerical solutions of FOCCM. Our results are compared with the results obtained for the numerical solutions that are based upon the fundamental theorem of fractional calculus as well as the Lagrange polynomial interpolation (LPI). Firstly, the accuracy of the results is checked by computing the absolute error between the numerical solutions by using SCM, TSFRK, FSFRK, and LPI and the exact solution in the case of the fractional-order logistic equation (FOLE). The numerical results demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed method. It is observed that the FSFRK is better than those by SCM, TSFRK and LPI in the case of an integer order. However, the non-integer orders in the cases of the SCM and LPI are better than those obtained by using the TSFRK and FSFRK. Secondly, the absolute error between the numerical solutions of FOCCM based upon SCM, TSFFRK, FSFRK, and LPI for integer order and non-integer order has been computed. The absolute error in the case of the integer order by using the three methods of the third order is considered. For the non-integer order, the order of the absolute error in the case of SCM is found to be the best. Finally, these results are graphically illustrated by means of different figures.

Fractional Optimal Control with Fish Consumption to Prevent the Risk of Coronary Heart Disease

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Chronic Heart Disease (CHD) is one of the greatest defies currently confronting humankind which is sweeping the whole globe, with an expanding trend in developing countries. In this paper, a mathematical model (MM) was proposed to study the connection between fish consumption and CHD mortality in Egypt, by considering a system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) involving time-fractional derivative (FD). We considered here the study on Egypt for the ease of obtaining real data, but the method and approach adopted here is not limited to Egypt only and can be applied to any country in the world with the information of the real data related to the subject of the study. Additionally, the control function which represents the metabolic and the behavioural risk factors of CHD that help to reduce the number of mortality due to CHD is incorporated in the proposed MM. A fractional optimal control problem (FOCP) with a proposed control is formulated and studied theoretically using the Pontryagin maximum principle, to minimize the susceptible population and also to decrease the mortality rate of CHD. Moreover, firstly we discussed the positivity and boundedness of solutions; then, the model equilibria are determined and their local stability analysis was investigated; furthermore, we use the improved forward-backward sweep method (FBSM) based on the predictor-corrector method (PCM) in order to obtain the solution of proposed FOCP. In addition, some numerical simulations were performed to show the effect of the proposed optimal control (OC) besides the impact of fish consumption on the mortality of CHD.

Numerical Optimal Control of HIV Transmission in Octave/MATLAB

We provide easy and readable GNU Octave/MATLAB code for the simulation of mathematical models described by ordinary differential equations and for the solution of optimal control problems through Pontryagin’s maximum principle. For that, we consider a normalized HIV/AIDS transmission dynamics model based on the one proposed in our recent contribution (Silva, C.J.; Torres, D.F.M. A SICA compartmental model in epidemiology with application to HIV/AIDS in Cape Verde. Ecol. Complex. 2017, 30, 70–75), given by a system of four ordinary differential equations. An HIV initial value problem is solved numerically using the ode45 GNU Octave function and three standard methods implemented by us in Octave/MATLAB: Euler method and second-order and fourth-order Runge–Kutta methods. Afterwards, a control function is introduced into the normalized HIV model and an optimal control problem is formulated, where the goal is to find the optimal HIV prevention strategy that maximizes the fraction of uninfected HIV individuals with the least HIV new infections and cost associated with the control measures. The optimal control problem is characterized analytically using the Pontryagin Maximum Principle, and the extremals are computed numerically by implementing a forward-backward fourth-order Runge–Kutta method. Complete algorithms, for both uncontrolled initial value and optimal control problems, developed under the free GNU Octave software and compatible with MATLAB are provided along the article.