Optimal Control of two-strain typhoid transmission using treatment and proper hygiene/sanitation practices

Abstract

A mathematical model is developed to predict the optimum level of measures required to control a two-strain typhoid infection. The model considers symptomatic individuals and carriers together with environmental bacteria with different sensitivities to antimicrobials. Treatment for symptomatic individuals in each strain and use of sanitation and proper hygiene practices are considered as control measures. Our simulation results show that combining the three control interventions highly influenced the number of symptomatic individuals and environmental bacteria in both the strains. However, there are still a significant number of asymptomatic carriers in both the strains. This result shows that combating a two-strain typhoid infection requires some control interventions that reduce the number of asymptomatic carriers to near zero, along with optimal treatment combined with proper hygiene/sanitation practices. Further, efficiency analysis is used to investigate the impact of each control strategy on reducing the number of infected individuals and bacteria in both the strains. The study result suggests that implementing the combination of all the three control interventions is the most effective control strategy