Fig 1. Model structure for 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

Solid arrows indicate transition from one compartment to another, dashed arrows indicate virus transmission due to contact with infectives. The virus can be transmitted to susceptible hosts (S) from infectious patients in the community (I), hospitalized patients (H) or patients who died of the disease and are not yet buried (D). Upon infection, susceptible hosts enter a latent phase (E), in which they are not yet infective. After symptoms onset, they become infective and might be hospitalized, recover from the disease or die and remain infectious until buried (B). Hospitalized patients might abandon the healthcare facilities and return to community, otherwise they either recover or die of the disease. Hosts who recovered from the infection are removed (R) from the chain of transmission.