Impact of human-human contagions in the spread of vector-borne diseases

TL;DR

This paper extends the Ross-Macdonald model to include human-to-human contagions, analyzing their impact on disease spread through mean field theory and complex networks, and deriving epidemic thresholds.

Contribution

It introduces a generalized model incorporating human-human transmission and derives analytical epidemic thresholds for both mean field and network scenarios.

Findings

Human-to-human contagions significantly affect epidemic thresholds.

The model's analytical thresholds match numerical simulations.

Network structure influences disease spread dynamics.

Abstract

This article is aimed at proposing a generalization of the Ross-Macdonald model for the transmission of Vector-borne diseases in which human-to-human contagions are also considered. We first present this generalized model by formulating a mean field theory, checking its validity by comparing to numerical simulations. To make the premises of our model more realistic, we adapt the mean field equations to the case in which human contacts are described by a complex network. In this case we are also able to derive an analytical expression for the epidemic threshold. In both the mean-field and network-based models, we estimate the value of the epidemic threshold which corresponds to the boundary between the disease-free and epidemic regimes. The expression of this threshold allows us to discuss the impact that human-to-human contagions have on the spread of vector-borne diseases.