Optimal control of vaccination and plasma transfusion with potential usefulness for COVID-19

TL;DR

This paper introduces an optimal control framework for vaccination and plasma transfusion within the SEIR epidemic model, aiming to reduce infections and recoveries efficiently, with potential applications to COVID-19 mitigation.

Contribution

It is the first to incorporate plasma transfusion as a control strategy in epidemic modeling, alongside vaccination, for COVID-19.

Findings

Control strategies effectively reduce infection numbers.

Plasma transfusion shows potential as a novel epidemic control measure.

Combined strategies optimize recovery rates with minimal costs.

Abstract

The SEIR model is a compartmental model used to simulate the dynamics of an epidemic. In this chapter, we introduce two control functions in the compartmental SEIR model representing vaccination and plasma transfusion. Optimal control problems are proposed to study the effects of these two control measures, on the reduction of infected individuals and increase of recovered ones, with minimal costs. Up to our knowledge, the plasma transfusion treatment has never been considered as a control strategy for epidemics mitigation. The proposed vaccination and treatment strategies may have a real application in the challenging and hard problem of controlling the COVID-19 pandemic.