Effects of masks on the transmission of infectious diseases

Advances in Difference Equations

article

Han, Lili¹  Pan, Qiuhui¹  Kang, Baolin³  He, Mingfeng¹ 

[1] School of Mathematical Sciences, Dalian University of Technology;School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Dalian University of Technology;College of Mathematics and Information Science, Anshan Normal University

关键词: Differential equation model;    Basic reproduction number;    Asymptomatic virus carriers;    Duration of the epidemic;    Numerical results;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s13662-021-03321-z

学科分类：航空航天科学

来源: SpringerOpen

【 摘 要 】

In the present paper, based on the conditions that asymptomatic virus carriers are contagious and all symptomatic infected individuals wear masks, we study the impact of wearing masks in the susceptible and the asymptomatic virus carriers on the spread of infectious diseases by developing a differential equation model. At first, we give the existence, uniqueness, boundedness, and positivity of the solution as well as the basic reproduction number$R_{0}$ for the established model. Then, for two cases of wearing masks in the susceptible and the asymptomatic virus carriers where the proportion of wearing masks is fixed and the proportion of wearing masks changes with time, the results of the numerical simulation are shown in a series of pictures, and quantitative description of effects of the proportion of the population wearing masks, the protective effect of masks, and the time when they start wearing masks on the epidemic is given. Our results show that under the situation that the proportion of wearing masks is positively related to the confirmed new cases and new deaths, though the proportion will be close to 1 during the high incidence of patients, the effect on controlling the spread of such infectious diseases is far worse than the case of always maintaining a relatively higher proportion (≥0.66) of wearing masks.

【 授权许可】

CC BY