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Toxoplasma infection in humans is considered due to direct contact with infected cats. Toxoplasma infection (an endemic disease) has the potential to affect various organs and systems (brain, eyes, heart, lungs, liver, and lymph nodes). Bilinear incidence rate and constant population (birth rate is equal to death rate) are used in the literature to explain the dynamics of Toxoplasmosis disease transmission in humans and cats. The goal of this study is to consider the mathematical model of Toxoplasma disease with harmonic mean type incident rate and also consider that the population of humans and cats is not equal (birth rate and the death rate are not equal). In examining Toxoplasma transmission dynamics in humans and cats, harmonic mean incidence rates are better than bilinear incidence rates. The disease dynamics are first schematically illustrated, and then the law of mass action is applied to obtain nonlinear ordinary differential equations (ODEs). Analysis of the boundedness, positivity, and equilibrium points of the system has been analyzed. The reproduction number is calculated using the next-generation matrix technique. The stability of disease-free and endemic equilibrium are analyzed. Sensitivity analysis is also done for reproduction number. Numerical simulation shows that the infection is spread in the population when the contact rate β h and β c increases while the infection is reduced when the recovery rate δ h increases. This study investigates the impact of various optimal control strategies, such as vaccinations for the control of disease and the awareness of disease awareness, on the management of disease., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background/Objectives: Obesity is currently considered a public health problem in both developed and developing countries. Gender- and age-specific body mass index (BMI) growth standards or references are particularly effective in monitoring the global obesity pandemic. This study aimed to report disparities in age-, gender- and ethnic-specific statistical estimates of overweight and obesity for 2-18 years aged Pakistani children and adolescents using the World Health Organization (WHO), the Center for Disease Control (CDC) 2000 references, the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) and Pakistani references for BMI. Methods : The study used secondary data of 10,668 pediatric population, aged 2-18 years. Demographic information like age (years), gender, city and anthropometric examinations, i.e., height (cm) and weight (kg) were used in this study. The recommended age- and gender-specific BMI cut-offs of the WHO, CDC 2000 and the IOTF references were used to classify the children sampled as overweight and obese. For the Pakistani reference, overweight and obesity were defined as BMI-for-age ≥ 85th percentile and BMI-for-age ≥ 95th percentile, respectively. Cohen's κ statistic was used to assess the agreement between the international references and local study population references in the classification of overweight/obesity. Results : The statistical estimates (%) of the participants for overweight and obesity varied according to the reference used: WHO (7.4% and 2.2%), CDC (4.9% and 2.1%), IOTF (5.2% and 2.0%) and Pakistan (8.8% and 6.0%), respectively; suggesting higher levels of overweight and obesity prevalence when local study references are used. The Kappa statistic shows a moderate to excellent agreement (κ ≥ 0.6) among three international references when classifying child overweight and obesity and poor agreement between local references and the WHO (0.45, 0.52), CDC (0.25, 0.50) and IOTF references (0.16, 0.31), for overweight and obesity, respectively. Conclusions : The results of the study showed a visible difference in the estimates of excess body weight after applying the WHO, CDC, IOTF and local BMI references to the study population. Based on the disparity results and poor agreement between international references and the local study reference, this study recommends using local BMI references in identifying children with overweight and obesity.