Asymptotic analysis of a vector-borne disease model with the age of infection

Abstract

Vector-borne infectious diseases may involve both horizontal transmission between hosts and transmission from infected vectors to susceptible hosts. In this paper, we incorporate these two transmission modes into a vector-borne disease model that includes general nonlinear incidence rates and the age of infection for both hosts and vectors. We show the existence, uniqueness, nonnegativity, and boundedness of solutions for the model. We study the existence and local stability of steady states, which is shown to be determined by the basic reproduction number. By showing the existence of a global compact attractor and uniform persistence of the system, we establish the threshold dynamics using the Fluctuation Lemma and the approach of Lyapunov functionals. When the basic reproduction number is less than one, the disease-free steady state is globally asymptotically stable and otherwise the disease will be established when there is initial infection force for the hosts. We also study a model with the standard incidence rate and discuss the effect of different incidence rates on the disease dynamics.