The effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions on SARS-CoV-2 transmission in different socioeconomic populations in Kuwait: a modeling study

Abstract Background Aggressive non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) may reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2. The extent to which these interventions are successful in stopping the spread have not been characterized in countries with distinct socioeconomic groups. We compared the effects of a partial lockdown on disease transmission among Kuwaitis (P1) and non-Kuwaitis (P2) living in Kuwait. Methods We fit a modified metapopulation SEIR transmission model to reported cases stratified by two groups to estimate the impact of a partial lockdown on the effective reproduction number ($$ {\mathcal{R}}_e $$ R e ). We estimated the basic reproduction number ($$ {\mathcal{R}}_0 $$ R 0 ) for the transmission in each group and simulated the potential trajectories of an outbreak from the first recorded case of community transmission until 12 days after the partial lockdown. We estimated $$ {\mathcal{R}}_e $$ R e values of both groups before and after the partial curfew, simulated the effect of these values on the epidemic curves and explored a range of cross-transmission scenarios. Results We estimate $$ {\mathcal{R}}_e $$ R e at 1·08 (95% CI: 1·00–1·26) for P1 and 2·36 (2·03–2·71) for P2. On March 22nd, $$ {\mathcal{R}}_e $$ R e for P1 and P2 are estimated at 1·19 (1·04–1·34) and 1·75 (1·26–2·11) respectively. After the partial curfew had taken effect, $$ {\mathcal{R}}_e $$ R e for P1 dropped modestly to 1·05 (0·82–1·26) but almost doubled for P2 to 2·89 (2·30–3·70). Our simulated epidemic trajectories show that the partial curfew measure greatly reduced and delayed the height of the peak in P1, yet significantly elevated and hastened the peak in P2. Modest cross-transmission between P1 and P2 greatly elevated the height of the peak in P1 and brought it forward in time closer to the peak of P2. Conclusion Our results indicate and quantify how the same lockdown intervention can accentuate disease transmission in some subpopulations while potentially controlling it in others. Any such control may further become compromised in the presence of cross-transmission between subpopulations. Future interventions and policies need to be sensitive to socioeconomic and health disparities.

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The effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions on SARS-CoV-2 transmission in different socioeconomic populations in Kuwait: A modelling study

University of Toronto Journal of Public Health ◽

10.33137/utjph.v2i2.36995 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Fatima Khadadah ◽

Abdullah A. Al-Shammari ◽

Ahmad Alhashemi ◽

Dari Alhuwail ◽

Bader Al-Saif ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Disease Transmission ◽

Reproduction Number ◽

Public Health Intervention ◽

Population Level ◽

Socioeconomic Groups ◽

Before And After ◽

Cross Transmission ◽

Community Transmission ◽

The Impact ◽

Pharmaceutical Interventions

Background: Aggressive non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) may reduce transmission of SARS-CoV2. The extent to which these interventions are successful in stopping the spread have not been characterized in countries with distinct socioeconomic groups. We compared the effects of a partial lockdown on disease transmission among Kuwaitis (P1) and non-Kuwaitis (P2) living in Kuwait. Methods: We fit a metapopulation Susceptible-Exposed-Infectious-Recovered (SEIR) model to reported cases stratified by two groups to estimate the impact of a lockdown on the effective reproduction number (Re). We estimated the basic reproduction number (R0) for the transmission in each group and simulated the potential trajectories of an outbreak from the first recorded case of community transmission until 12 days after the lockdown. We estimated Re values of both groups before and after the lockdown, simulated the effect of these values on epidemic curves and explored a range of cross-transmission scenarios. Results: We estimate R0 at 1·06 (95% CI: 1·05-1·28) for P1 and 1·83 (1·58-2·33) for P2. On March 22nd, Re for P1 and P2 are estimated at 1·13 (1·07-1·17) and 1·38 (1·25-1·63) respectively. After the curfew had taken effect, Re for P1 dropped modestly to 1·04 (1·02-1·06) but almost doubled for P2 to 2·47 (1·98-3·45). Our simulated epidemic trajectories show that the partial curfew measure modestly reduced and delayed the height of the peak in P1, yet significantly elevated and hastened the peak in P2. Modest cross-transmission from P2 to P1 elevated the height of the peak in P1 and brought it forward in time closer to the peak of P2. Conclusion: Our results demonstrate that a lockdown can reduce SARS-CoV2 transmission in one subpopulation but accelerate it in another. At the population level, the consequences of lockdowns may vary across the socioeconomic spectrum. Any public health intervention needs to be sensitive to disparities within populations.

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A THEORETICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFECTS OF DISTRIBUTED DELAY ON THE TRANSMISSION DYNAMICS OF HEPATITIS B

Journal of Biological System ◽

10.1142/s0218339015500229 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 23 (03) ◽

pp. 423-455

Author(s):

P. MOUOFO TCHINDA ◽

JEAN JULES TEWA ◽

BOULECHARD MEWOLI ◽

SAMUEL BOWONG

Keyword(s):

Drug Therapy ◽

Hepatitis B ◽

Basic Reproduction Number ◽

Disease Transmission ◽

Time Delays ◽

Reproduction Number ◽

Distributed Delay ◽

Global Dynamics ◽

The Impact ◽

The Basic Reproduction Number

In this paper, we investigate the global dynamics of a system of delay differential equations which describes the interaction of hepatitis B virus (HBV) with both liver and blood cells. The model has two distributed time delays describing the time needed for infection of cell and virus replication. We also include the efficiency of drug therapy in inhibiting viral production and the efficiency of drug therapy in blocking new infection. We compute the basic reproduction number and find that increasing delays will decrease the value of the basic reproduction number. We study the sensitivity analysis on the key parameters that drive the disease dynamics in order to determine their relative importance to disease transmission and prevalence. Our analysis reveals that the model exhibits the phenomenon of backward bifurcation (where a stable disease-free equilibrium (DFE) co-exists with a stable endemic equilibrium when the basic reproduction number is less than unity). Numerical simulations are presented to evaluate the impact of time-delays on the prevalence of the disease.

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Evolution of disease transmission rate during the course of SARS-COV-2: Patterns and determinants

10.21203/rs.3.rs-44647/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Jie Zhu ◽

Blanca Gallego

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Disease Transmission ◽

Reproduction Number ◽

Transmission Rate ◽

Region Of Interest ◽

Health Interventions ◽

Transmission Model ◽

Public Health Interventions ◽

Containment Measures ◽

The Impact

Abstract To date, many studies have argued the potential impact of public health interventions on flattening the epidemic curve of SARS-CoV-2. Most of them have focused on simulating the impact of interventions in a region of interest by manipulating contact patterns and key transmission parameters to reflect different scenarios. Our study looks into the evolution of the daily effective reproduction number during the epidemic via a stochastic transmission model. We found this measure (although model-dependent) provides an early signal of the efficacy of containment measures. This epidemiological parameter when updated in real-time can also provide better predictions of future outbreaks. Our results found a substantial variation in the effect of public health interventions on the dynamic of SARS-CoV-2 transmission over time and across countries, that could not be explained solely by the timing and number of the adopted interventions. This suggests that further knowledge about the idiosyncrasy of their implementation and effectiveness is required. Although sustained containment measures have successfully lowered growth in disease transmission, more than half of the 101 studied countries failed to maintain the effective reproduction number close to or below 1. This resulted in continued growth in reported cases. Finally, we were able to predict with reasonable accuracy which countries would experience outbreaks in the next 30 days.

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Investigating the Impact of Social Awareness and Rapid Test on A COVID-19 Transmission Model

Communication in Biomathematical Sciences ◽

10.5614/cbms.2021.4.1.5 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 46-64

Author(s):

Muhammad Afief Balya ◽

Bunga Oktaviani Dewi ◽

Faza Indah Lestari ◽

Gayatri Ratu ◽

Hanna Rosuliyana ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Basic Reproduction Number ◽

Reproduction Number ◽

Equilibrium Points ◽

Rapid Test ◽

Social Awareness ◽

Transmission Model ◽

Media Campaign ◽

Single Intervention ◽

The Impact ◽

The Basic Reproduction Number

In this article, we propose and analyze a mathematical model of COVID-19 transmission among a closed population, with social awareness and rapid test intervention as the control variables. For this, we have constructed the model using a compartmental system of the ordinary differential equations. Dynamical analysis regarding the existence and local stability of equilibrium points is conducted rigorously. Our analysis shows that COVID-19 will disappear from the population if the basic reproduction number is less than one, and persist if the basic reproduction number is greater than one. In addition, we have shown a trans-critical bifurcation phenomenon based on our proposed model when the basic reproduction number equals one. From the elasticity analysis, we have observed that rapid testing is more promising in reducing the basic reproduction number as compared to a media campaign to improve social awareness on COVID-19. Using the Pontryagin Maximum Principle (PMP), the characterization of our optimal control problem is derived analytically and solved numerically using the forward-backward iterative algorithm. Our cost-effectiveness analysis shows that using rapid test and media campaigns partially are the best intervention strategy to reduce the number of infected humans with the minimum cost of intervention. If the intervention is to be implemented as a single intervention, then using solely the rapid test is a more promising and low-cost option in reducing the number of infected individuals vis-a-vis a media campaign to increase social awareness as a single intervention.

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COVID-19 disease transmission model considering direct and indirect transmission

E3S Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/e3sconf/202020212008 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 202 ◽

pp. 12008

Author(s):

Dipo Aldila

Keyword(s):

Mathematical Model ◽

Basic Reproduction Number ◽

Disease Transmission ◽

Reproduction Number ◽

Transmission Model ◽

Indirect Transmission ◽

Variation Of Parameters ◽

The Media ◽

Disease Transmission Model ◽

The Basic Reproduction Number

A mathematical model for understanding the COVID-19 transmission mechanism proposed in this article considering two important factors: the path of transmission (direct-indirect) and human awareness. Mathematical model constructed using a four-dimensional ordinary differential equation. We find that the Covid-19 free state is locally asymptotically stable if the basic reproduction number is less than one, and unstable otherwise. Unique endemic states occur when the basic reproduction number is larger than one. From sensitivity analysis on the basic reproduction number, we find that the media campaign succeeds in suppressing the endemicity of COVID-19. Some numerical experiments conducted to show the dynamic of our model respect to the variation of parameters value.

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Assessing the Potential Impact of Immunity Waning on the Dynamics of COVID-19: An Endemic Model of COVID-19

10.21203/rs.3.rs-1109572/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

MUSA RABIU ◽

Sarafa A. Iyaniwura

Keyword(s):

Disease Transmission ◽

Reproduction Number ◽

Transmission Rate ◽

Backward Bifurcation ◽

Disease Dynamics ◽

Potential Impact ◽

The Impact ◽

Induced Immunity ◽

Disease Free ◽

Pharmaceutical Interventions

Abstract We developed an endemic model of COVID-19 to assess the impact of vaccination and immunity waning on the dynamics of the disease. Our model exhibits the phenomenon of backward bifurcation and bi-stability, where a stable disease-free equilibrium co-exists with a stable endemic equilibrium. The epidemiological implication of this is that the control reproduction number being less than unity is no longer sufficient to guarantee disease eradication. We showed that this phenomenon could be eliminated by either increasing the vaccine efficacy or by reducing the disease transmission rate (adhering to non-pharmaceutical interventions). Furthermore, we numerically investigated the impacts of vaccination and waning of both vaccine-induced immunity and post-recovery immunity on the disease dynamics. Our simulation results show that the waning of vaccine-induced immunity has more effect on the disease dynamics relative to post-recovery immunity waning, and suggests that more emphasis should be on reducing the waning of vaccine-induced immunity to eradicate COVID-19.

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Impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions on the COVID-19 epidemic: A modelling study

SAGE Open Medicine ◽

10.1177/2050312120979462 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

pp. 205031212097946

Author(s):

Salah Al Awaidy ◽

Ozayr Mahomed

Keyword(s):

Intensive Care Unit ◽

Intensive Care ◽

Disease Transmission ◽

Large Scale ◽

Public Health Intervention ◽

Transmission Model ◽

Early Implementation ◽

The Government ◽

The Impact ◽

Pharmaceutical Interventions

Objective: This study aimed to assess the impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions on the COVID-19 epidemic in Oman. Methods: Data were retrieved from published national surveillance data between 24 February and 30 June 2020. To show the impact of the Government introduced public health intervention early in the epidemic, we used a simple disease-transmission model equation of the 2019-n CoV epidemic. Results: From all confirmed cases, the rates of intensive care unit admission were 4.56% (1824). We estimated an R0 of 3.11 with no intervention would result in nearly the entire population of Oman being infected within 65 days. A reduction of the R0 to 1.51 provided an estimated 89,056 confirmed cases, with 167 deaths or 0.4% mortality by June 30 with a requirement of 4052 intensive care unit beds. The current scenario (24 February to 30 June 2020) indicates an R0 of 1.41, resulting in 40,070 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 176 deaths and 69% of confirmed cases recovered. Conclusion: In early implementation of non-pharmaceutical interventions, an intensive lockdown has had a profound impact on the mitigation of a large-scale COVID-19 outbreak in Oman.

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Rich Dynamics of an Epidemic Model with Saturation Recovery

Journal of Applied Mathematics ◽

10.1155/2013/314958 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 2013 ◽

pp. 1-9 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Hui Wan ◽

Jing-an Cui

Keyword(s):

Basic Reproduction Number ◽

Epidemic Model ◽

Disease Transmission ◽

Reproduction Number ◽

Basic Reproductive Number ◽

Reproductive Number ◽

Medical Resource ◽

Sir Epidemic Model ◽

The Impact ◽

The Basic Reproduction Number

A SIR epidemic model is proposed to understand the impact of limited medical resource on infectious disease transmission. The basic reproduction number is identified. Existence and stability of equilibria are obtained under different conditions. Bifurcations, including backward bifurcation and Hopf bifurcation, are analyzed. Our results suggest that the model considering the impact of limited medical resource may exhibit vital dynamics, such as bistability and periodicity when the basic reproduction numberℝ0is less than unity, which implies that the basic reproductive number itself is not enough to describe whether the disease will prevail or not and a subthreshold number is needed. It is also shown that a sufficient number of sickbeds and other medical resources are very important for disease control and eradication. Considering the costs, we provide a method to estimate a suitable treatment capacity for a disease in a region.

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Spatial effects in parasite induced marine diseases of immobile hosts

10.1101/2021.12.15.472766 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Alex Gimenez-Romero ◽

Federico Vazquez ◽

Cristobal Lopez ◽

Manuel A Matias

Keyword(s):

Basic Reproduction Number ◽

Disease Transmission ◽

Spatial Model ◽

Reproduction Number ◽

Large Fraction ◽

Common Mechanism ◽

Anthropogenic Pressures ◽

Analytical Approximations ◽

The Impact ◽

The Basic Reproduction Number

Marine infectious diseases are more prevalent in recent times due to climate change and other anthropogenic pressures, posing a substantial threat to marine ecosystems and the conservation of their biodiversity. An important subset of marine organisms are sessile, for which the most common mechanism for disease transmission is direct contact with waterborne parasites. Only recently, some deterministic compartmental models have been proposed to describe this kind of epidemics, being these models based on non-spatial descriptions where space is homogenised and parasite mobility is not explicitly accounted for. However, in realistic situations, epidemic transmission is conditioned by the spatial distribution of hosts and the parasites mobility patterns. Thus, the interplay between these factors is expected to have a crucial effect in the evolution of the epidemic, so calling for a explicit description of space. In this work we develop a spatially-explicit individual-based model to study disease transmission by waterborne parasites in sessile marine populations. We investigate the impact of spatial disease transmission, performing extensive numerical simulations and analytical approximations. Specifically, the effects of parasite mobility into the epidemic threshold and the temporal evolution of the epidemic are assessed. We show that larger values of pathogen mobility have two main implications: more severe epidemics, as the number of infections increases, and shorter time-scales to extinction. Moreover, an analytical expression for the basic reproduction number of the spatial model, is derived as function of the non-spatial counterpart, which characterises a transition between a disease-free and a propagation phase, in which the disease propagates over a large fraction of the system. This allows to determine a phase diagram for the epidemic model as function of the parasite mobility and the basic reproduction number of the non-spatial model.

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Accounting for underreporting in mathematical modelling of transmission and control of COVID-19 in Iran

10.1101/2020.05.02.20087270 ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Meead Saberi ◽

Homayoun Hamedmoghadam ◽

Kaveh Madani ◽

Helen M. Dolk ◽

Andrei S. Morgan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Reproduction Number ◽

Estimation Method ◽

Case Fatality ◽

Transmission Model ◽

School Closures ◽

The Public ◽

Case Fatality Ratio ◽

And Control ◽

The Impact ◽

Pharmaceutical Interventions

SUMMARYBackgroundIran has been the hardest hit country by the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 in the Middle East with 74,877 confirmed cases and 4,683 deaths as of 15 April 2020. With a relatively high case fatality ratio and limited testing capacity, the number of confirmed cases reported is suspected to suffer from significant under-reporting. Therefore, understanding the transmission dynamics of COVID-19 and assessing the effectiveness of the interventions that have taken place in Iran while accounting for the uncertain level of underreporting is of critical importance. We use a mathematical epidemic model utilizing official confirmed data and estimates of underreporting to understand how transmission in Iran has been changing between February and April 2020.MethodsWe developed a compartmental transmission model to estimate the effective reproduction number and its fluctuations since the beginning of the outbreak in Iran. We associate the variations in the effective reproduction number with a timeline of interventions and national events. The estimation method also accounts for the underreporting due to low case ascertainment by estimating the percentage of symptomatic cases using delay-adjusted case fatality ratio based on the distribution of the delay from hospitalization-to-death.FindingsOur estimates of the effective reproduction number ranged from 0.66 to 1.73 between February and April 2020, with a median of 1.16. We estimate a reduction in the effective reproduction number during this period, from 1.73 (95% CI 1.60 – 1.87) on 1 March 2020 to 0.69 (95% CI 0.68-0.70) on 15 April 2020, due to various non-pharmaceutical interventions including school closures, a ban on public gatherings including sports and religious events, and full or partial closure of non-essential businesses. Based on these estimates and given that a near complete containment is no longer feasible, it is likely that the outbreak may continue until the end of the 2020 if the current level of physical distancing and interventions continue and no effective vaccination or therapeutic are developed and made widely available.InterpretationThe series of non-pharmaceutical interventions and the public compliance that took place in Iran are found to be effective in slowing down the speed of the spread of COVID-19 within the studied time period. However, we argue that if the impact of underreporting is overlooked, the estimated transmission and control dynamics could mislead the public health decisions, policy makers, and general public especially in the earlier stages of the outbreak.FundingNil.

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