Honors College Theses

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A Model for Chagas Disease with Sylvatic Transmission and Vector Life Stages
Anderson, Kathryn; Spagnuolo, Anna Maria
Chagas disease is a parasitic vector borne illness which infects mammals, including humans, and exists predominantly in Latin and South America. This paper will present a mathematical model consisting of 29 coupled differential equations, some with delays, which attempts to characterize the key aspects of Chagas disease dynamics in the Gran Chaco region of South America. For an example village, these equations model the population of vectors in in the domestic and peridomestic regions, infected vectors in the domestic and peridomestic, as well as susceptible and infected humans, infected dogs, and infected mammals. As an addition to this model, an equation describing wild populations of vectors (sylvatic) and transfer to the domicile from these populations is now included. This model also attempts to create a more accurate portrayal of the vector populations by including the presence of vector nymph stages into all vector populations (except the sylvatic). The main interest for this work is to provide a tool in the form of computational simulations to test different scenarios that will aid researchers in potentially discovering and exploring avenues that will reduce disease incidence in humans and to eradicate it, if possible.