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Seasonal transmission dynamics of measles in China

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Abstract

Measles, a highly contagious infection caused by the measles virus, is a major public health problem in China. The reported measles cases decreased dramatically from 2004 to 2012 due to the mandatory measles vaccine program started in 2005 and the goal of eliminating measles by 2012. However, after reaching its lowest level in 2012, measles has resurged again since 2013. Since the monthly data of measles cases exhibit a seasonally fluctuating pattern, based on the measles model in Earn et al. (Science 287:667–670, 2000), we propose a susceptible, exposed, infectious, and recovered model with periodic transmission rate to investigate the seasonal measles epidemics and the effect of vaccination. We calculate the basic reproduction number \({\mathcal {R}}_{0}\), analyze the dynamical behavior of the model, and use the model to simulate the monthly data of measles cases reported in China. We also carry out some sensitivity analysis of \({\mathcal {R}}_{0}\) in the terms of various model parameters which shows that measles can be controlled and eventually eradicated by increasing the immunization rate, improving the effective vaccine management, and enhancing the awareness of people about measles.

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Acknowledgements

Research was partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 11471133, 11771168, 11871235) and National Science Foundation (No. DMS-1412454).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mathematics and Statistics, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, 430079, People’s Republic of China

    Jicai Huang, Xiao Wu & Xuelei Zhou

  2. Department of Mathematics, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, 33146, USA

    Shigui Ruan

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  1. Jicai Huang
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  2. Shigui Ruan
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Correspondence to Shigui Ruan.

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Huang, J., Ruan, S., Wu, X. et al. Seasonal transmission dynamics of measles in China. Theory Biosci. 137, 185–195 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12064-018-0271-8

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