Analysis of a Reaction Diffusion Model for a Reservoir Supported Spread of Infectious Disease

TL;DR

This paper develops reaction-diffusion models to analyze how reservoir species influence the spatial spread of Ebola-like diseases, providing insights into long-term disease dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces novel reaction-diffusion models that incorporate reservoir-host interactions to better understand disease spread mechanisms.

Findings

Reservoir presence significantly affects disease spread patterns.

Models predict long-term persistence or decline of the disease.

Analysis reveals conditions for disease eradication or endemicity.

Abstract

Motivated by recent outbreaks of the Ebola Virus, we are concerned with the role that a vector reservoir plays in supporting the spatio-temporal spread of a highly lethal disease through a host population. In our context, the reservoir is a species capable of harboring and sustaining the pathogen. We develop models that describe the horizontal spread of the disease among the host population when the host population is in contact with the reservoir and when it is not in contact with the host population. These models are of reaction diffusion type, and they are analyzed, and their long term asymptotic behavior is determined.