When Susceptible and Infective Human Hosts are not Equally Attractive to Mosquitoes: a Generalization of the Ross Malaria Model

摘要

Models for vector-transmitted infections are always based on several homo-geneity assumptions, even when some aspects of heterogeneity are incorpo-rated in the model. Usually most of these assumptions are not stated explic-itly, and among these is the implicit assumption that susceptible and infectivehosts are bitten homogeneously by insect vectors. Some experiments and afield study documented in the literature (Baylis and Nambiro (1993) and ref-erences therein) seem to indicate the possibility that vectors have a feedingpreference for infected hosts. On the other hand, if infective human hosts areespecially protected against mosquito bites, for example through the use ofbed nets, susceptible hosts could on average be bitten more frequently.