Speaker
Description
We consider a mathematical model of differential equations for the epidemic dynamics with heterogeneity in preventive behaviors among individuals. Our focus is on how the distribution of preventive behaviors influences the epidemic consequence in a community. The preventive behavior determines the level of caution to the disease transmission. We assume that the community could be categorized into n classes according to their caution level about a spreading disease. The caution level affects both the susceptibility of susceptible individuals and the transmissibility of infected individuals. Susceptible individuals of low caution level are more likely to be infected than those of high caution level. Infected individuals of low caution level contribute more to the disease transmission. Based on this social structure, we present an SIR-type model with n classes of different caution levels. We investigate how the distribution of classes could affect the final epidemic size, which is defined as the total number of individuals who experienced the disease transmission, and discuss how the severity of the disease outbreak depends on the nature of the distribution.
