Seasonality effects on dengue: basic reproduction number, sensitivity analysis and optimal control

Dengue is a vector-borne disease transmitted from an infected human to an Aedes mosquito, during a blood meal. Dengue is still a major public health problem. A model for the disease transmission is presented, composed by human and mosquitoes compartments. The aim is to simulate the effects of seasonality, on the vectorial capacity and, consequently, on the disease development. Using entomological information about the mosquito behavior under different temperatures and rainfall, simulations are carried out, and the repercussions analyzed. The basic reproduction number of the model is given, as well as a sensitivity analysis of model's parameters. Finally, an optimal control problem is proposed and solved, illustrating the difficulty of making a trade-off between reduction of infected individuals and costs with insecticide. Copyright (c) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.This work was supported by Portuguese funds through The Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). Rodrigues and Torres are supported by the Center for Research and Development in Mathematics and Applications (CIDMA) within project PEst-OE/MAT/UI4106/2014; Monteiro is supported by the ALGORITMI R&D Center and project PEST-OE/EEI/UI0319/2014.