Open AccessThe Role of Non-pharmacological Interventions on the Dynamics of Schistosomiasis
Author(s) -
Agatha Abokwara,
Chinwendu Emilian Madubueze
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of mathematical and fundamental sciences/journal of mathematical and fundamental siences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.216
H-Index - 12
eISSN - 2337-5760
pISSN - 2338-5510
DOI - 10.5614/j.math.fund.sci.2021.53.2.6
Subject(s) - schistosomiasis , snail , population , public health , psychological intervention , geography , basic reproduction number , molluscicide , reproduction , ecology , socioeconomics , environmental health , biology , medicine , economics , helminths , zoology , nursing , psychiatry
Schistosomiasis is a neglected tropical disease affecting communities surrounded by water bodies where fishing activities take place or people go to swim, wash and cultivate crops. It poses a great risk to the health and economic life of inhabitants of the area. This study was carried out to evaluate the impact of public health education and snail control measures on the incidence of schistosomiasis. A model was developed with attention given to the snail and human populations that are the hosts of the cercariae and miracidia respectively. The existence and stability of disease-free and endemic equilibrium states were established. The disease-free and endemic equilibrium states were shown to be locally asymptotically stable whenever the basic reproduction number was less than unity. Numerical simulations of the model were carried out to evaluate the impact of interventions (public health education and snail control measures) on schistosomiasis transmission. It was observed that the implementation of low coverage snail control with highly efficacious molluscicide and massive public health education will make the basic reproduction number smaller than unity, which implies the eradication of schistosomiasis in the population.