A nonlinear AIDS epidemic model with screening and time delay

摘要

A nonlinear mathematical model to study the effect of time delay in the recruitment of infected persons on the transmission dynamics of HIV/AIDS is proposed and analyzed. In modeling the dynamics, the population is divided into four subclasses: the susceptibles, the HIV positives or infectives that do not know they are infected, the HIV positives that know they are infected and the AIDS patients. Susceptibles are assumed to become infected via sexual contacts with (both types of) infectives. The model is analyzed using stability theory of delay differential equations. Both the disease-free and the endemic equilibria are found and their stability is investigated. It is shown that the introduction of time delay in the model has a destabilizing effect on the system and periodic solutions can arise by Hopf bifurcation. Numerical simulations are also carried out to investigate the influence of key parameters on the spread of the disease, to support the analytical conclusion and to illustrate possible behavioral scenario of the model.