On the Use of Entropy Issues to Evaluate and Control the Transients in Some Epidemic Models

This paper studies the representation of a general epidemic model by means of a first-order differential equation with a time-varying log-normal type coefficient. Then the generalization of the first-order differential system to epidemic models with more subpopulations is focused on by introducing the inter-subpopulations dynamics couplings and the control interventions information through the mentioned time-varying coefficient which drives the basic differential equation model. It is considered a relevant tool the control intervention of the infection along its transient to fight more efficiently against a potential initial exploding transmission. The study is based on the fact that the disease-free and endemic equilibrium points and their stability properties depend on the concrete parameterization while they admit a certain design monitoring by the choice of the control and treatment gains and the use of feedback information in the corresponding control interventions. Therefore, special attention is paid to the evolution transients of the infection curve, rather than to the equilibrium points, in terms of the time instants of its first relative maximum towards its previous inflection time instant. Such relevant time instants are evaluated via the calculation of an “ad hoc” Shannon’s entropy. Analytical and numerical examples are included in the study in order to evaluate the study and its conclusions.This research was funded by MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE, grant number RTI2018-094902-B-C22 and the APC was funded by RTI2018-094902-B-C22

Complex Dynamics of an SIR Epidemic Model with Nonlinear Saturate Incidence and Recovery Rate

Susceptible-infectious-removed (SIR) epidemic models are proposed to consider the impact of available resources of the public health care system in terms of the number of hospital beds. Both the incidence rate and the recovery rate are considered as nonlinear functions of the number of infectious individuals, and the recovery rate incorporates the influence of the number of hospital beds. It is shown that backward bifurcation and saddle-node bifurcation may occur when the number of hospital beds is insufficient. In such cases, it is critical to prepare an appropriate amount of hospital beds because only reducing the basic reproduction number less than unity is not enough to eradicate the disease. When the basic reproduction number is larger than unity, the model may undergo forward bifurcation and Hopf bifurcation. The increasing hospital beds can decrease the infectious individuals. However, it is useless to eliminate the disease. Therefore, maintaining enough hospital beds is important for the prevention and control of the infectious disease. Numerical simulations are presented to illustrate and complement the theoretical analysis