A systematic procedure for incorporating separable static heterogeneity into compartmental epidemic models

TL;DR

This paper presents a systematic method to incorporate separable static heterogeneity into compartmental epidemic models without increasing their complexity, based on the Kermack-McKendrick renewal equation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel procedure for modifying epidemic models to include heterogeneity while maintaining the original model dimension.

Findings

Enables modeling of heterogeneity without increasing model complexity

Provides a derivation based on the Kermack-McKendrick renewal equation

Facilitates more accurate epidemic predictions considering population heterogeneity

Abstract

In this paper, we show how to modify a compartmental epidemic model, without changing the dimension, such that separable static heterogeneity is taken into account. The derivation is based on the Kermack-McKendrick renewal equation.