Modeling the Potential Role of Media Campaigns on the Control of Listeriosis
AbstractThe human Listeriosis infection is a food-borne disease caused by the consumption of food products contaminated by the bacterial pathogen, Listeria. In this paper, we propose a mathematical model to analyse the impact of media awareness campaigns on the spread and control of Listeriosis. The model equilibria are determined and the model has three equilibria namely; the disease-free, the Listeria-free, and the endemic equilibria. The food contamination constant (ℛf) is determined and the stability analysis shows that the disease-free steady state is locally asymptotically stable if ℛf < 1, the Listeria-free and endemic steady states are locally asymptotically stable whenever ℛf > 1. Sensitivity analysis is done to determine the model parameters that most affect the severity of the disease. Numerical simulations are carried out to determine the role of media awareness campaigns on the spread of the Listeriosis. The results show that an increase in the intensity of the media awareness campaigns and removal of contaminated food products, a decrease in the contact rate, results in fewer humans getting infected leading to disease eradication, while an increase in the depletion of media awareness campaigns results in more humans been infected with Listeriosis. These findings may significantly impact policy and decision making in the control of Listeriosis disease.