Mathematical analysis of a diarrhoea model in the presence of vaccination and treatment waves with sensitivity analysis

Abstract

In this study, the diarrhoea model is developed based on basic mathematical modelling techniques leading to a system (five compartmental model) of ordinary differential equations (ODEs). Mathematical analysis of the model is then carried out on the uniqueness and existence of the model to know the region where the model is epidemiologically feasible. The equilibrium points of the model and the stability of the disease-free state were also derived by finding the reproduction number. We then progressed to running a global sensitivity analysis on the reproduction number with respect to all the parameters in it, and four (4) parameters were found sensitive. The work was concluded with numerical simulations on Maple 18 using Runge-Kutta method of order four (4) where the values of six (6) parameters present in the model were each varied successively while all other parameters were held constant so as to know the behaviour and effect of the varied parameter on how diarrhoea spreads in the population. The results from the sensitivity analysis and simulations were found to be in sync.