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On the dynamics of a class of multi-group models for vector-borne diseases
The resurgence of vector-borne diseases is an increasing public health
concern, and there is a need for a better understanding of their dynamics. For
a number of diseases, e.g. dengue and chikungunya, this resurgence occurs
mostly in urban environments, which are naturally very heterogeneous,
particularly due to population circulation. In this scenario, there is an
increasing interest in both multi-patch and multi-group models for such
diseases. In this work, we study the dynamics of a vector borne disease within
a class of multi-group models that extends the classical Bailey-Dietz model.
This class includes many of the proposed models in the literature, and it can
accommodate various functional forms of the infection force. For such models,
the vector-host/host-vector contact network topology gives rise to a bipartite
graph which has different properties from the ones usually found in directly
transmitted diseases. Under the assumption that the contact network is strongly
connected, we can define the basic reproductive number and show
that this system has only two equilibria: the so called disease free
equilibrium (DFE); and a unique interior equilibrium---usually termed the
endemic equilibrium (EE)---that exists if, and only if, . We
also show that, if , then the DFE equilibrium is globally
asymptotically stable, while when , we have that the EE is
globally asymptotically stable
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