An epidemiological model that incorporates individual adoption of
protective behaviours due to fear of contracting an infectious disease
is presented. These adaptive behaviours are assumed to lower an
individual's risk of infection. The dynamics of this model are
analyzed and the effects of fear on important public health metrics
such as outbreak length, final size, and peak prevalence are
investigated. It is concluded that the coupled dynamics of fear- and
disease-spread are rich and can lead to counter-intuitive effects on
the public health metrics considered. In particular, it is not always
the case that more effective protective behaviours lead to the most
favourable population-level outcomes; intermediate levels of
effectiveness are optimal in some cases. This result depends on when
fearful individuals become infected with respect to the main outbreak
that is mostly driven by the infection of fully susceptible
individuals. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/18251 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Papst, Irena |
| Contributors | Earn, David J.D., Mathematics |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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