Epidemic interventions

John M. Drake

Anatomy of an epidemic

plot of chunk unnamed-chunk-2

  • Initial growth of the epidemic is exponential
  • Susceptible depletion results in departure from the basic reproduction number
  • Define effective reproduction number and denote \( R_e \)
  • \( R_e \) scales with the proportion of susceptibles in the population (\( S=X/N \implies R_e = R_0 \times S \))
  • This implies that there is a critical susceptible population size, \( S_c \) for the pathogen to invade

Vaccination

Recall that \( R_e = R_0 X/N \)

This implies that \( S_c = 1/R_0 \)

The complement of \( S_c \) is the critical vaccination proportion: \( p_c = 1-S_c = 1-\frac{1}{R_0} \)

A correction is needed for imperfect vaccines (e.g. SARS-CoV-2): \( p_c = \frac{1}{\epsilon}\left({1-\frac{1}{R_0}}\right) \) where \( \epsilon \) is the vaccine effectiveness at preventing transmissible infection.

Vaccination

plot of chunk unnamed-chunk-3

Vaccination

We can obtain the same result by inspection of the equation for \( dY/dt \)

\[ \frac{dY}{dt} = \beta X \frac{Y}{N} - \gamma Y \]

Set \( dY/dt < 0 \) and solve

\[ \begin{align} \frac{dY}{dt} = \beta X \frac{Y}{N} - \gamma Y &< 0 \\ \beta \frac{X}{N} &< \gamma \\ \frac{X}{N} &< \frac{\gamma}{\beta} = \frac{1}{R_0} \end{align} \]

Vaccination thresholds

plot of chunk unnamed-chunk-4

Population ("Herd") Immunity

Due to the dependency upon social contact for transmission, an individual is afforded a degree of protection via the immunity of others in the population.

If contacts have been vaccinated, the probability of acquiring the disease is lower

Implication: Not everyone in a population needs to be immune to eradicate an infections disease

The extent of vaccination effort required is determined by \( R_0 \).

“Cocooning” strategies

A model for pediatric immunization

Assumption: a fraction \( p \) of newborns are vaccinated/immunized at birth

\[ \begin{align} \frac{dS}{dt} &= \mu (1-p) - \beta SI - \mu S \\ \frac{dI}{dt} &= \beta SI - (\mu + \gamma) I \\ \frac{dR}{dt} &= \mu p + \gamma I - \mu R \end{align} \]

Long-term control

Set system to zero (equilibrium) and solving for \( I \) yields

\[ I^* = \frac{\mu}{\beta} (R_0 (1-p) -1) \]

Setting \( I^* \) to zero and solving for \( p \) yields

\[ p_c = 1-\frac{1}{R_0} \]

  • \( p_c \) is the critical fraction of newborns that must be immunized to achieve eventual eradication

Random immunization

\[ \begin{align} \frac{dS}{dt} &= \mu - \beta SI - \mu S - \rho S\\ \frac{dI}{dt} &= \beta SI - (\mu + \gamma I) \\ \frac{dR}{dt} &= \rho S + \gamma I - \mu R \end{align} \]

Random immunization

Set system to zero (equilibrium) and solving for \( I \) yields

\[ I^* = \frac{\mu}{\beta} (R_0-1-\frac{\rho}{\mu}) \]

Setting \( I^* \) to zero and solving for \( \rho \) yields

\[ \rho_c = \mu (R_0 - 1) \]

  • \( \rho_c \) is the critical rate at which susceptibles need to be immunized to achieve eventual eradication

Discussion: Provide an intuitive interpretation of \( \rho_c \)

Pulsed vaccination (supplemental immunization activities)

Where infant vaccination and continuous vaccination are not feasible, a more economic and logistically efficient strategy may be pulsed vaccination

Pulsed vaccination seeks to vaccinate specific age cohorts at specified intervals

Pulsed vaccination (supplemental immunization activities)

Mathematical model:

\[ \begin{align} \frac{dS}{dt} &= \mu - \beta S I - \mu S - p \sum_n=0^\infty S(nT^{-1})\delta (t-nT) \\ \frac{dI}{dt} &= \beta SI - (\mu +\gamma)I \end{align} \]

Linear stability analysis yields an eradication criterion

\[ \frac{(\mu T - p)(e^{\mu T -1})+\mu pT}{\mu T(p-1+e^{\mu T})} < \frac{1}{R_0} \]

Shulgin et al. 1998. Pulse vaccination strategy in the SIR epidemic model Bulletin of Mathematical Biology 60:1123-1148.

Pulsed vaccination (supplemental immunization activities)

Vaccine failure

Failures in

  1. Degree (the level of protection, e.g. against disease but not infection)
  2. Take (the fraction of the population which received protection, conditioned on vaccination)
  3. Duration (how long protection lasts – waning immunity)

Waning immunity

Mathematical model:

\[ \begin{align} \frac{dS}{dt} &= \mu (1-p) - \beta SI - \mu S + \delta V\\ \frac{dI}{dt} &= \beta SI - (\mu + \gamma) I \\ \frac{dV}{dt} &= \mu p - (\mu + \delta) V \end{align} \]

Yielding the following eradication criterion

\[ p_c = \left( 1-\frac{1}{R_0} \right) \left( 1+ \frac{\delta}{\mu} \right) \]

Non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs)

  1. Physical distancing
  2. Active case finding, isolation, contact-tracing, and quarantine
  3. Infection barriers

Discussion: How would you incorporate these NPIs into a dynamical model?

\[ \begin{align} \frac{dS}{dt} &= \mu - \beta SI - \mu S \\ \frac{dI}{dt} &= \beta SI - (\mu + \gamma) I \\ \frac{dR}{dt} &= \mu + \gamma I - \mu R \end{align} \]

Acknowledgements

Presentations and exercises draw significantly from materials developed with Pej Rohani, Ben Bolker, Matt Ferrari, Aaron King, and Dave Smith used during the 2009-2011 Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases workshops and the 2009-2019 Summer Institutes in Statistics and Modeling of Infectious Diseases.

Licensed under the Creative Commons attribution-noncommercial license, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/3.0/. Please share and remix noncommercially, mentioning its origin.