Lassa fever disease: a sensitivity analysis of its treatment control model

Abstract

A treatment model with seven mutually exclusive compartments related to Lassa fever is presented and the dynamics is completely determined by the effective reproduction number which was obtained using the next-generation approach. A sensitivity analysis of the treatment deterministic model is performed. This is done in order to determine the relative importance of the model parameters to the disease transmission. Stability and sensitivity based on such methods as Lyaponuv functional, Comparison theorem etc. Numerical simulation analysis (using MATLAB and MAPLE) were carried out to support the theoretical analysis. The result of the sensitivity analysis shows that the most sensitive parameter is the treatment rate, followed by human recovery rate, then person-to-person contact. This suggests that control strategies should target effective drugs for treatment and education to reduce person to person contact.