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BioMed Central, Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling, 1(7), 2010

DOI: 10.1186/1742-4682-7-41

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Assessing the effects of multiple infections and long latency in the dynamics of tuberculosis

Journal article published in 2010 by Hyun M. Yang ORCID, Silvia M. Raimundo
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

Abstract In order to achieve a better understanding of multiple infections and long latency in the dynamics of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection, we analyze a simple model. Since backward bifurcation is well documented in the literature with respect to the model we are considering, our aim is to illustrate this behavior in terms of the range of variations of the model's parameters. We show that backward bifurcation disappears (and forward bifurcation occurs) if: (a) the latent period is shortened below a critical value; and (b) the rates of super-infection and re-infection are decreased. This result shows that among immunosuppressed individuals, super-infection and/or changes in the latent period could act to facilitate the onset of tuberculosis. When we decrease the incubation period below the critical value, we obtain the curve of the incidence of tuberculosis following forward bifurcation; however, this curve envelops that obtained from the backward bifurcation diagram.