ON THE BASIC REPRODUCTION NUMBER OF LASSA FEVER EPIDEMICS AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH INTER-EPIDEMIC PERIOD

Authors

  • C. Obasi*† Department of Mathematics, University of Nigeria, Nsukka
  • G.C.E. Mbah Department of Mathematics, University of Nigeria, Nsukka

Keywords:

Lassa fever, mathematical model, reproduction number, inter-epidemic period

Abstract

Lassa fever is a deadly disease transmitted through ingestion of food that is contaminated with infected rodent’s saliva, urine or excreta, infected person and inhalation of the aerosol. In this paper, we present a novel mathematical model that accounted for all the known Lassa fever transmission routes. We derived the basic reproduction number for the model and estimated the inter-epidemic period of infection disease. The goal of this paper is to find the relationship between the Lassa fever basic reproduction number and inter-epidemic period of infection disease. It was found that the basic reproduction number is inversely proportional to the square of inter-epidemic period of an infectious disease. Therefore, any policy or measures taken to reduce the basic reproduction number will definitely make the disease to take a very long time to re-emerge.

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Published

2023-09-27

How to Cite

Obasi*†, C., & Mbah, G. (2023). ON THE BASIC REPRODUCTION NUMBER OF LASSA FEVER EPIDEMICS AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH INTER-EPIDEMIC PERIOD. International Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Modelling, 2(1). Retrieved from https://tnsmb.org/journal/index.php/ijmam/article/view/12