An SIRS Epidemic Model Supervised by a Control System for Vaccination and Treatment Actions Which Involve First-Order Dynamics and Vaccination of Newborns.

This paper analyses an SIRS epidemic model with the vaccination of susceptible individuals and treatment of infectious ones. Both actions are governed by a designed control system whose inputs are the subpopulations of the epidemic model. In addition, the vaccination of a proportion of newborns is considered. The control reproduction number R c of the controlled epidemic model is calculated, and its influence in the existence and stability of equilibrium points is studied. If such a number is smaller than a threshold value R ¯ c , then the model has a unique equilibrium point: the so-called disease-free equilibrium point at which there are not infectious individuals. Furthermore, such an equilibrium point is locally and globally asymptotically stable. On the contrary, if R c > R ¯ c , then the model has two equilibrium points: the referred disease-free one, which is unstable, and an endemic one at which there are infectious individuals. The proposed control strategy provides several free-design parameters that influence both values R c and R ¯ c . Then, such parameters can be appropriately adjusted for guaranteeing the non-existence of the endemic equilibrium point and, in this way, eradicating the persistence of the infectious disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]