Study of Disease Dynamics of Co-infection of Rotavirus and Malaria with Control Strategies

Abstract

This paper proposes a model that addresses the interaction and dynamics of malaria and rotavirus co-infection. The model incorporates various epidemiological and biological features of both the malaria and rotavirus. The mode of transmission of both the diseases is different as malaria is vector borne disease causing infection through infected arthropod and rotavirus is a contagious virus causing diarrhoea by the inflammation of intestines and stomach. It is being assumed in the model that humans are susceptible to malaria and rotavirus simultaneously. It is further assumed that the recovered population, whether naturally or through treatment is prone to the infection again. The co-infection dynamics of diseases is studied with different control measures in the form of treatments to both human and vector compartments. In order to visualize the effect of diverse control strategies, we studied three models, that is, one, in the absence of malaria disease, second, in the absence of rotavirus disease and third, for co-infection of both the diseases. To understand the dynamics of co-infection, the stability analysis of the full model for disease-free equilibrium and the threshold value, which is, the basic reproduction number is calculated. Bifurcation analysis is performed for full co-infection model along with that of malaria-only model. Both rotavirus-only model and malaria-only models are found to be globally asymptotically stable at disease-free equilibrium. Sensitivity indices have been calculated to study the effect of model parameters on the basic reproduction number. Results are illustrated with numerical simulation.