Eur. Phys. J. B 50, 505-511 (2006)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2006-00163-4

Time evolution of non-lethal infectious diseases: a semi-continuous approach

¹ Dipartimento di Matematica ed Applicazioni “Renato Caccioppoli”, Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II” 80100 Napoli, Napoli, Italy
² Dipartimento di Fisica “E. R. Caianiello”, Università degli Studi di Salerno, 84081 Baronissi (SA), Italy
³ INFM and DIIMA, Università degli Studi di Salerno, 84084 Fisciano (SA), Italy

Corresponding author: ^a fromeo@sa.infn.it

Received: 8 December 2005
Revised: 20 February 2006
Published online: 5 May 2006

Abstract

A model describing the dynamics related to the spreading of non-lethal infectious diseases in a fixed-size population is proposed. The model consists of a non-linear delay-differential equation describing the time evolution of the increment in the number of infectious individuals and depends upon a limited number of parameters. Predictions are in good qualitative agreement with data on influenza, which is taken to be a representative type of non-lethal infectious disease.