A COMPARTMENTAL MODEL OF SLEEPING SICKNESS IN CENTRAL AFRICA

Abstract

We present a five-variable compartmental model for the spread of Trypanosoma brucei gambiense, the parasite responsible for the transmission (through tsetse flies) of sleeping sickness in Central Africa. The model’s equilibrium points depend on two “summary parameters”: gr, the proportion removed among human infectives, and R0, the basic reproduction rate. Stability results are obtained for the origin but not for other equilibrium points. A two-variable simplified version of the model is presented and the stability of all its equilibrium points can be investigated analytically. Both models are applied to the Niari focus of Central Africa and used to test the impact of a vector control strategy. The models’ results are in agreement with the extinction of the epidemic that was brought about by a fifty percent decrease in vector density.