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. 2022 Aug 28;9(1):397–412. doi: 10.1007/s40808-022-01469-5

Modeling the impact of precautionary measures and sanitation practices broadcasted through media on the dynamics of bacterial diseases

Rabindra Kumar Gupta 1,2, Soumitra Pal 1, A K Misra 1,
PMCID: PMC9420191  PMID: 36059593

Abstract

The media has a significant contribution in spreading awareness by broadcasting various programs about prevalent diseases in the society along with the role of providing information, feeding news and educating a large mass. In this paper, the effect of media programs promoting precautionary measures and sanitation practices to control the bacterial infection in the community is modeled and analyzed considering the number of media programs as a dynamical variable. In the modeling phenomena, human population is partitioned into three classes; susceptible, infected and recovered. The disease is supposed to spread by direct contact of susceptible with infected individuals and indirectly by the ingestion of bacteria present in the environment. The growth in the media programs is considered proportional to the size of infected population and the impact of these programs on the indirect disease transmission rate and bacteria shedding rate by infected individuals is also considered. The feasibility of equilibria and their stability conditions are obtained. Model analysis reveals that broadcasting media programs and increasing its effectiveness shrink the size of infected class and control the spread of disease to a large extent.

Keywords: Bacterial disease, Precautionary measures, Sanitation practices, Media programs, Transcritical bifurcation

Introduction

Infectious diseases are posing a great problem to mankind, as they impose mortality, disability, and create socio-economic hindrance for people all over the world (Lopez et al. 2006; WHO 2012). Infectious diseases are becoming more dangerous due to the speedy mutation of their pathogens (changes in their DNA code) to survive in difficult situations. Bacteria (pathogens) are microscopic, single-cell organisms that cause contagious bacterial infections and can result in many serious or life-threatening complications. Bacterial infection takes place directly during the interaction between susceptible and infected individuals and indirectly through ingestion of bacteria from the environment. The bacterial disease cholera is indirectly transmitted mainly through ingestion of Vibrio cholerae bacteria from contaminated food or water and directly transmitted due to unhygienic contact with cholera patients faeces, barf or corpses. Infectious diseases cause mortality of more than 11 million people in developing countries (Lopez et al. 2006). Almost 1.4 million kids lose their life each year due to Pneumonia (WHO 2012). Also, about 1.5 million kids below the age of five expire each year due to diarrheal disease, 1.4 million mortality occurred due to TB in 2010 and 655,000 with malaria (WHO 2009). It is estimated that about 2.0 billion people still are not facilitated with toilets. Out of which, 673 million people are still defecating in the open area, like in street gutters, on the banks of rivers and ponds and behind bushes (WHO 2019). More than 10% of population around the world is supposed to consume food products irrigated by contaminated water (WHO 2019). Since sanitation refers to clean environment, safe disposal of dungs and human excreta and precautionary measures stand for using appropriate masks in proper way, frequently cleaning hands, maintaining social distance, avoiding unnecessary contact with infected individuals, practicing better hygiene, and avoiding ingestion of contaminated water or food, etc., protect human beings from infection. Therefore, sanitation and precautionary measures are the rational steps to control the bacterial infection. Almost 10% of the total disease burden is still due to the poor sanitation (Mara et al. 2010). Proper and adequate sanitation with essential precautions have a significant impact on human health  and  socioeconomic status of any nation, specially of developing countries.

Media being the major source of information, disseminate awareness among people regarding the mode of disease transmission and its preventive measures. Social media along with social networking sites assisted by the mobile technology have revolutionized the speed and way of spread of information. 71% of social network users among 3.77 billion internet users around the world have capacity to communicate instantaneously with hundreds of new people (Kemp et al. 2017). Awareness programs through social media play a very fundamental role to convey information about the mode of disease transmission and protection from disease and also address the issues of healthy sanitation that induce changes in people’s attitude so that they adopt adequate precautionary measures. Media also inform the public about government policies and programs and its usefulness, like ”Swachh Bharat Abhiyan”, an initiative taken by the Indian government to propagate awareness among the individuals to change their behavior regarding healthy sanitation practices (Swachh Bharat Abhiyan 2017). Some diseases are eradicated by vaccination and awareness. The production of vaccines takes long time and is expensive too. Also, there is a great challenge to carry out vaccination effectively due to lack of public beliefs in the efficacy as well as safety of vaccines that creates vaccine hesitancy (i.e., delay or disagree to get vaccinated) (Larson et al. 2014). Therefore, utmost importance must be assigned to awareness measures via media programs for the control and possible eradication of bacterial diseases. Thus, media can play a decisive role in restricting the spread of the diseases by altering the behaviors of susceptible individuals.

Mathematical modeling is an efficient mechanism to understand the dynamics of disease transmission and is useful in making appropriate decisions to control disease prevalence. In the past few decades, researchers have exploited this branch to model the effect of media campaigns on the dynamics of diseases like, AIDS (Nyabadza et al. 2010; Khan and Odinsyah 2020), Ebola (Njankou and Nyabadza 2017), Avian Influenza (Khan et al. 2020), Listeriosis (Chukwu and Nyabadza 2021), vector-host disease (Khan et al. 2021) and COVID-19 (Tripathi et al. 2021). Some mathematical studies are also performed to assess the impact of awareness on the control of infectious diseases by taking rate of transmission as decreasing function of media programs (Liu and Cui 2008; Cui et al. 2008; Liu et al. 2007; Tchuenche et al. 2011; Sundar et al. 2018). A few models with media as dynamical variable in which programs that propagate awareness are executed proportional to the infective population (Collinson et al. 2015; Dubey et al. 2016; Huo et al. 2018; Kumar et al. 2017; Basir 2018; Chang et al. 2020; Shanta and Biswas 2020). Yang et al. (2017) have suggested a comparative study of two problems to explore the impact of awareness to mitigate cholera outbreak. The susceptible class of the first model is divided into aware and unaware class in the second model. Their findings have shown that the transmission rate and bacteria shedding rate decline with the increase of awareness programs which help in controlling infection of cholera disease. Mara et al. (2010) have studied the impact of sanitation in controlling infections from diseases. They have shown that enriched sanitation is accountable for better human health and also for socioeconomic development, particularly in developing nations. Misra et al. (2011) put forward a mathematical model to analyze the effect of awareness programs through the media on the dynamics of infectious diseases. In this study, it is assumed that the growth of media is proportional to the number of infectives and the peoples are made aware through awareness programs forming a separate aware class. Their study proclaims that the awareness programs through media is helpful in minimizing the spread of infectious disease but the disease remains in the community due to immigration. Shukla et al. (2020) suggested a model in which they have shown that the bacterial density can be reduced if the rate of sanitation effort is increased that ultimately decreases the infected population. Musa et al. (2021) have developed a model to study the impact of public health education programs on transmission dynamics of the typhoid fever (a bacterial infection). The analysis of this work reveals that the presence of public health education programs control the spread of diseases. The final epidemic size relation is developed taking only human to human transmission route to estimate the size of susceptible class during typhoid epidemic. The model is fitted to the data of typhoid fever cases in Taiwan from 2009 to 2018 and wavelet analysis is done to know the local periodicity of typhoid fever.

As pointed out earlier, sanitation and precautionary measures are effective mechanisms to control the spread of infections. In this regard, Tiwari et al. (2022) have developed a model to investigate the effect of awareness and sanitation programs propagated through social media on disease prevalence and epidemic outbreak, where they have considered aware class as a separate state variable along with susceptible and infected class. The growth rate of programs through media is assumed to be proportional to infected population and decreases with the increase of number of aware people. They have considered that the bacterial density in the environment is reduced due to sanitation practices broadcasted through media programs. In this paper, we have suggested a model to study the influence of precautionary measures and sanitation practices broadcasted through media on the prevalence of bacterial disease by controlling bacterial density at it’s source that is reducing the bacteria shedding in the environment by infected individuals and also limiting the ingestion of bacteria by people from the environment. The details of modeling phenomena are discussed in the following sections.

The mathematical model

This section covers the formulation of a mathematical model with some considerable assumptions for the spread of bacterial disease. In the considered region, let the entire human population (N(t)) be partitioned into three subclasses; S(t), I(t) and R(t) defined in Table 1 along with the bacterial density in the environment B(t) and the total number of media programs M(t). People are supposed to join the susceptible class at a constant rate Λ, attributed to birth or immigration. The population is assumed to be homogeneously mixed and disease propagates through direct contact with infectives, at the rate β, following the law of simple mass action and indirectly through ingestion of bacteria from the environment at the rate η. Bacterial density is supposed to have saturated impact on susceptibles and is incorporated using the term B/(K+B) as defined by Codeço (2001). The efficient media programs on the precautionary measures aware susceptible population about the mode of disease transmission, so they adapt proper precautions to protect themselves from bacterial infection. Therefore, the transmission rate η is considered to decreases by a factor ηωMp+M, which implies that the net transmission rate becomes η1-ωMp+M. Also, media programs regarding sanitation practices to control bacterial infection stimulate people to clean their surroundings using different means (disinfectants, managing dumping site for wastes and excreta, destroying the bacterial shed, etc.) to minimize the abundance of bacteria in the environment. This fact is assigned in the model with the term s11-θMm+M indicating that the shedding rate of bacteria by infected individuals s1 decreases by a factor s1θMm+M. It is also assumed that the recovered individuals join the susceptible class due to the immunity loss caused by high stress level, frequent infections, lack of good hygiene and some people born with weak immune system. Also, each class experiences natural mortality, whereas infected class suffers extra mortality induced by the disease. The abundance of bacteria in the environment is due to self growth of the bacteria and the release of bacteria from the infected humans. The increment of media programs is considered to vary with the size of infected population and it is assumed that a certain level of media programs (M0) always broadcasted to create awareness about the risk of disease prevalence. Moreover, broadcasting of some programs are being stopped by the passage of time subject to failure in the long run and their ineffectiveness. Hence, the decay in media programs is incorporated in the model with the term r0(M-M0). With these considerations, the proposed model can mathematically be presented as follows:

dSdt=Λ-βSI-η1-ωMp+MSBK+B+δR-dS, 1a
dIdt=βSI+η1-ωMp+MSBK+B-(υ+α+d)I, 1b
dRdt=υI-δR-dR, 1c
dBdt=sB-s0B+s11-θMm+MI, 1d
dMdt=rI-r0(M-M0). 1e

Table 1.

Descriptions of variables used in the model system (1)

Variables Descriptions
S(t) Size of susceptible class
I(t) Size of infected class
R(t) Size of recovered class
B(t) Bacterial density in the environment
M(t) Cumulative number of programs broadcasted through media

Schematic flowchart diagram of the above model system is shown in Fig. 1. Biologically, it is obvious that the bacterial density at any instant of time experiences a net decay without any external contribution. So, the natural mortality rate of bacteria exceeds its self-growth rate, i.e., s<s0. We define s0-s=s2, and 0θ1, 0ω1. We analyze the system (1) with non-negative initial conditions, and the media programs at level M0 initially. The parameters used in the system (1) are all taken to be positive constants, and their epidemiological features are interpreted in Table 2. Since, N=S+I+R, system (1) can equivalently be expressed as follows:

dIdt=βI(N-I-R)+η1-ωMp+M(N-I-R)BK+B-(υ+α+d)I, 2a
dRdt=υI-(δ+d)R, 2b
dNdt=Λ-dN-αI, 2c
dBdt=sB-s0B+s11-θMm+MI, 2d
dMdt=rI-r0(M-M0). 2e

Fig. 1.

Fig. 1

Flowchart of model system (1). The red dotted lines represent the interaction between the respective compartments that is contribution of one of connecting compartment on other, whereas the blue solid lines with arrow depict the flow into/out the compartment

Table 2.

Descriptions of parameters involved in the system (1)

Parameters Descriptions
Λ Immigration rate of susceptible population
β Transmission rate of susceptible into infected class due to their contact with infected individuals
η Rate of transmission from susceptible to infected class due to ingestion of bacteria from environment
δ Transfer rate from recovered to susceptible class due to immunity loss
d Death rate of human population due to natural factors
υ Recovery rate of infected population
α Disease induced death rate
ω Efficacy of media programs focusing precautionary measures
θ Efficacy of media programs targeting sanitary measures
s Self growth rate of bacteria
s0 Rate of decrease of bacteria due to natural factors
s1 Bacteria shedding rate by each infected person
p Saturation level of media programs at which the efficiency of precautionary measure related programs becomes half of its maximum value
m Saturation level of media programs at which the efficiency of sanitation measure related programs becomes half it’s optimum value
K Density of bacteria that yields 50% chance to catch the disease
r Growth rate of media programs
r0 Diminution rate of media programs
M0 Base line number of media programs

Systems (1) and (2) are equivalent because S is just changed to N using N=S+I+R and no other changes are made. After knowing the value of N, I and R at any instant of time t, the value of S at the same time can be obtained by using the relation S=N-I-R. Therefore, it is sufficient to study and analyze the dynamics of system (2).

Mathematical analysis

Positivity and boundedness

Theorem 1

The biologically feasible region for the solution of system (2) commencing in the positive orthant is as follows:

Ω=(I,R,N,B,M)R+5:0I(t)+R(t)N(t)Λd,0Bs1Λds2,0M(t)rΛdr0+M0.

The region Ω is compact and invariant with respect to system (2) which is closed and bounded in a hyper-cuboid of five dimensions.

The proof of theorem is provided in Appendix A.

Equilibrium analysis and basic reproduction number

Existence of disease free equilibrium

The equilibrium equations of model (2) are solved to get the disease-free equilibrium which is E0=(0,0,Λd,0,M0). E0 is always feasible.

Basic reproduction number

Health organizations and policymakers all over the world have been using basic reproduction number R0 as key estimator to measure the intensity of the epidemic. It is defined as R0=ρ(T1T2-1) with ρ(T1T2-1)=sup{|x|:xσ(T1T2-1)}, where σ is the spectrum and ρ is spectral radius of the matrix T1T2-1. The next-generation matrix technique (Diekmann et al. 2010) is used in calculating R0. The transmission and transition terms in the infected subsystem of the system (2) are, respectively,

T1=βI(N-I-R)+η1-ωMp+M(N-I-R)BK+B0and
T2=(υ+α+d)Is2B-s11-θMm+MI.

The transmission and transition matrices at E0 of system (2) are, respectively,

T1=βΛdηΛdK1-ωM0p+M000andT2=(υ+α+d)0-s11-θM0m+M0s2.

The value of R0 for the system (2) is

R0=Λd(υ+α+d)β+ηs1Ks21-ωM0p+M01-θM0m+M0.

Existence of endemic equilibrium

The components of E=(I,R,N,B,M) are obtained from the equilibrium equations of the system (2). Here, we claim that the positive value of components of E exist.

From equilibrium Eq. (2b)

R=υIδ+d, 3

from the equilibrium Eq. (2c)

N=Λ-αId, 4

and from the equilibrium Eq. (2e) we have

M=rIr0+M0=g(I). 5

Using (5) in the equilibrium Eq. (2d) we have

B=s1s21-θg(I)m+g(I)I=Ih(I). 6

Now, from the equilibrium Eq. (2a) we get

F(I)=β+η1-ωg(I)p+g(I)h(I)K+Ih(I)×Λ-αId-I-υIδ+d-(υ+α+d), 7

where

g(I)=rr0>0,h(I)=-θs1mrr0s2(m+g(I))2<0. 8

Differentiating Eq. (7) with respect to I, we have

F(I)=-ηpωg(I)(p+g(I))2h(I)(K+Ih(I))+η1-ωg(I)p+g(I)Kh(I)-h2(I)(K+Ih(I))2×Λ-αId-I-υIδ+d-βI+η1-ωg(I)p+g(I)h(I)K+Ih(I)αd+1+υδ+d.

Here we note that at any instant of time t, S(t)=N-I-R=Λd-αd+υδ+d+1I. For S(t) to be positive, I<Λdαd+υδ+d+1=Ic(say).

From Eq. (7) it is noted that

  • (i)

    F(0)=Λdβ+ηs1Ks21-ωM0p+M01-θM0m+M0-(υ+α+d)=(υ+α+d)(R0-1)>0, provided R0>1

  • (ii)

    F(Ic)=FΛdαd+υδ+d+1=-(υ+α+d)<0, where, 0<Ic=Λdαd+υδ+d+1<Λd

  • (iii)

    F(I)<0 for I(0,Ic).

This implies that the unique root (say I=I) of F(I) exists in the interval (0,Ic), whenever R0>1. With this value of I=I and from Eqs. (3), (4), (5) and (6) we can easily obtain the values of R,N, M and B, respectively. Thus, equilibrium E is feasible, when R0>1, and I(0,Ic)

Stability analysis

This section covers the local and global stability of equilibria of the system (2). This is achieved either by evaluating sign of the eigenvalues of the Jacobian matrix of the system (2) at the equilibrium points or by Lyapunav method. The local stability analysis of E0 stated in the theorem (2) indicates whether the disease disappears gradually or spreads in the community.

Local stability analysis of disease free equilibrium

Theorem 2

The disease-free equilibrium E0 is always feasible and locally asymptotically stable if R0<1, whereas it is unstable whenever R0>1 and a unique stable endemic equilibrium exists.

Proof

The Jacobian matrix of the system (2) is

J=J11-J12J13J14-J15υ-(δ+d)000-α0-d00J4100-s2-J45r000-r0,

where

J11=β(N-2I-R)-ηBK+B1-ωMp+M-(υ+α+d),J12=J13=βI+ηBK+B1-ωMp+M,J14=ηK(K+B)21-ωMp+M(N-I-R),J15=ηωpB(N-I-R)(K+B)(p+M)2,J41=s11-θMm+M,J45=s1θmI(m+M)2.

The Jacobian matrix at E0 is

JE0=βΛd-(υ+α+d)00ηΛdK1-ωM0p+M00υ-(δ+d)000-α0-d00s11-θM0m+M000-s20r000-r0.

Since three characteristic values, -r0, -(δ+d) and -d of the matrix JE0 are negative. The rest two characteristic values are the roots of equation

λ2+c1λ+c2=0, 9

where

c1=-βΛd-(υ+α+d)-s2andc2=s2(υ+α+d)(1-R0).

If R0<1, then c1>0 as βΛd<(υ+α+d)+s2 and c2>0, so both roots of Eq. (9) are real negative or with negative real parts, while at least one positive root whenever R0>1. That is, E0 is locally asymptotically stable if R0<1 and unstable for R0>1 either in I or B direction.

To visualize the complete characterization of the endemic equilibrium E we obtain the conditions of its local and global stability. We use Lyapunav method to find these conditions. Lyapunav function is positive definite function which is zero at the equilibrium point. The equilibrium point is stable if the time derivative of Lyapunav function is negative definite. The conditions of local and global stability are presented in the following theorems.

Local stability analysis of E

Theorem 3

The equilibrium E, if exists, is locally asymptotically stable in the region of attraction Ω if

b142<49s22b11min{b11b412,2r0b15rb452}. 10

where bij are defined in the proof.

The proof is provided in Appendix B.

Global stability analysis of E

Theorem 4

The endemic equilibrium E, if feasible, is globally asymptotically stable in the region of attraction Ω if the following conditions hold:

ηΛs1ds2KI2<23min{dα,δ+dυ}, 11

and

N-I-RI2<227β2s22η2min{23min{1s12,2r029r2m+MθI2}×K+B1-wMp+M2,Kdr0(p+M)rωs1Λ2}. 12

The proof is provided in Appendix C.

Bifurcation analysis

The exchange of stability between E0 and E occurs at R0=1, which indicates the occurrence of transcritical bifurcation in the system. Since R0 is a function of β, therefore, without any loss of generality, we can choose β as a bifurcation parameter. At R0=1, we note that

β=β=d(υ+α+d)Λ-ηs1Ks21-ωM0p+M0×1-θM0m+M0.

The linearized matrix of the system (2) at β=β about E0 is

JE0(β)=a1100ηΛdK1-ωM0p+M00υ-(δ+α)000-α0-d00s11-θM0m+M000-s20r000-r0,

where

a11=-Ληs1dKs21-ωM0p+M01-θM0m+M0<0.

The eigenvalues are -(δ+d), -d ,-r0, (a11-s2) and 0. Thus, all four eigenvalues are negative and one is simple zero. The equilibrium E0 is non-hyperbolic equilibrium point. The right eigenvector of JE0(β) corresponding to the 0 eigenvalue is

W=(w1,w2,w3,w4,w5)=1,υ(δ+d),-αd,s1s21-θM0m+M0,rr0,

and the left eigenvector is U=(u1,u2,u3,u4,u5)=(1,0,0,0,0) so that U.WT=1.

We have applied the result of theorem (4.1) of Chavez and Song (2004) for the local dynamics of the system (2). Accordingly, the coefficients are given by

a=i,j,k=15ukwiwj2fk(E0,β)xixj,b=i,k=15ukwi2fk(E0,β)xiβ.

Now, the value of a and b for model system (2) is as follows:

a=-2β(1+w2-w3)-ηe1Kw4+w2w4-w3w4+2Λw42Kd-Ληw5e2dK

where

e1=1-ωM0p+M0>0,e2=ωp(p+M0)2>0,

and

b=Λd.

Here a<0 and b>0. We have summarized the above results in the theorem (5) to know the qualitative behavior of the solution of the system (2) when the value of parameter β changes, that is the value of R0 changes from the critical value one.

Theorem 5

For a<0 and b>0, the equilibrium E0 of the system (2) is locally asymptotically stable, whenever R0<1 with R01 along with the existence of a negative unstable equilibrium E. But, the equilibrium E0 becomes unstable and a positive locally stable equilibrium E appears if R0>1 with R01. That is, the system (2) undergoes forward bifurcation.

Proof

The proof follows from Chavez and Song (2004), theorem (4.1) pp. 373 and remark 1 pp. 375.

Numerical simulations

This section includes the numerical simulation of model system (2) using MATLAB and MATCONT to substantiate the analytical outcomes and also to manifest the effect of media programs on the disease prevalence. The value of the parameters used in numerical simulation and their corresponding units are given in Table 3.

Table 3.

Parameter values used for numerical simulation

Parameters Values Units References
Λ 5 person day-1 Misra et al. (2018)
β 0.000002 person-1 day-1 Misra et al. (2018)
η 0.0001 (cells mm-3)-1 day-1 Codeço (2001)
ω 0.3 Assumed
p 60 progms. Assumed
K 1000 cells mm-3 Codeço (2001)
υ 0.2 day-1 Wang et al. (2015)
α 0.00001 day-1 Misra et al. (2018)
d 0.00005 day-1 Misra et al. (2018)
δ 0.001 day-1 Wang et al. (2015)
s 0.07 day-1 Codeço (2001)
s0 0.4 day-1 Codeço (2001)
s1 10 cells mm-3 person-1 day-1 Codeço (2001)
θ 0.3 Assumed
m 50 progms. Assumed
r 0.08 progms. person-1 day-1 Assumed
r0 0.2 day-1 Assumed
M0 100 progms. Assumed

The value of parameters are kept same as mentioned in Table 3 throughout the simulation unless otherwise stated. The components of endemic equilibrium of system (2) for these parameters are

I=108.14,R=20597.67,N=99978.37,B=2548.18,M=143.25.

The eigenvalues of corresponding Jacobian matrix are -0.343145,-0.02848,-0.00298,-0.19823,and-0.00005, which are all negative reals and so the equilibrium is locally asymptotically stable. Also, the global stability conditions are satisfied with the considered set of parameter values. Figure 2 depicts that the trajectories with different initial starts converging to the only feasible endemic equilibrium. The value of R0 for these parameter values is 1.98425. The surface plot (Fig. 3) of basic reproduction number R0=RD+RI, where RD and RI correspond to direct transmission (human to human) and indirect transmission (environment to human) is plotted by varying both transmission rates β and η, simultaneously. From the figure, we can see that, even if the values of RD and RI are separately less than unity but their cumulative value which represents the net basic reproduction number R0 may exceed unity which implies that the disease still persists in the population. Thus, it is important to control both the transmissions direct and indirect to limit the spread of disease in the population. Thereafter, we have focused on the effect of media programs which disseminate the information regarding precautionary measures as well as sanitary practices on the dynamics of the disease pervasion. Media programs related to the precautionary measures make people aware, so they avoid ingesting the contaminated water and food and thus their chance of being infected is reduced. Also through proper sanitation practices, the bacterial density in the environment can be reduced, which indirectly implies that the chance of getting infected is also reduced. Consequently, the size of infected class is reduced. Figure 4 represents the contour plots of R0 plotted by varying the efficacy of these media broadcasted programs, i.e., ω and θ. As the values of ω and θ get lower, the value of R0 becomes larger. This suggests that the disease extinct (persists) if the efficacy of the media increases (decreases). In Figs. 5 and 6, we have drawn variation plots with respect to θ and ω, respectively. These figures show that with the increasing values of either θ or ω, the number of infected individuals decreases. Figure 7 depicts the combined effect of θ and ω on the number of infected persons. We can infer that the media programs broadcasting precautionary measures have more impact than that of programs targeting sanitation practices in reducing the infected individuals. Figure 8 delineates the transcritical bifurcation with respect to R0 (obtained by varying β) in the forward direction. For R0<1, the system (2) has only a stable disease-free equilibrium which loses its stability with the generation of unique stable endemic equilibrium, as the value of R0 crosses unity. Therefore, from the figure we can infer that the disease invades in the population if R0>1 and is extinct if R0<1.

Fig. 2.

Fig. 2

Global stability plot of E in I-R plane

Fig. 3.

Fig. 3

Surface plot of R0 and its two parts RD and RI obtained by varying β and η

Fig. 4.

Fig. 4

Contour plots showing different values of R0 with respect to ω and θ

Fig. 5.

Fig. 5

Variation plot representing the change in the size of infected class for different values of θ with ω=0

Fig. 6.

Fig. 6

Variation plot representing the change in the size of infected class for different values of ω with θ=0

Fig. 7.

Fig. 7

Effect of θ and ω on the size of infected class

Fig. 8.

Fig. 8

Transcritical bifurcation in forward direction with respect to R0 (obtained by varying β), all the parameters are same as of Table 3 except η=0.00005

Sensitivity analysis

Sensitivity analysis aims to find the response of variables to changes in the parameters value. It is performed to determine how the model behavior reacts to the changes in the parameters. It helps to study the uncertainity associated with the parameters in the model. It also assists to understand the system’s dynamics and determines the level of accuracy essential for a parameter to shape the model extremely useful and valid. We have performed the sensitivity analysis to identify the relative strength of model parameters to disease transmission and prevalence. The differential sensitivity analysis of system characterizes the relation between parameters of a system and the behavior of model solution. We have used the basic differential analysis approach in order to visualize the sensitivity analysis (Eslami et al. 2013; Chitnis et al. 2008). The semi-relative sensitivity solution of a variable Y with respect to the parameter τ is given by τY(t,τ)τ=τYτ(t,τ) and the logarithmic sensitivity is given by log(Y)log(τ)(t)=τY(t,τ)Yτ(t,τ). The semi-relative sensitivity analysis provides information about the amount the state will alter, whereas the logarithmic sensitivity analysis indicates the percentage change in the solution when the parameter is doubled. Study of both type of sensitivity solutions gives better understanding of system’s dynamics. The basic sensitivity analysis of the parameters η, s1, and r are obtained following (Bortz and Nelson 2004). The differential sensitivity systems corresponding to model system (2) in regard to η, s1, and r are, respectively, written as

dIηdt=β[(Nη-Iη-Rη)I-(N-I-R)Iη]-η(N-I-R)ωpMη(p+M)2BK+B-KBη(K+B)21-ωMp+M+η(Nη-Iη-Rη)1-ωMp+MBK+B+1-ωMp+M(N-I-R)B(K+B)-(υ+α+d)Iη,dRηdt=υIη-(δ+d)Rη,dNηdt=-dNη-αIη,dBηdt=sBη-s0Bη+s11-θMm+MIη-mθMη(m+M)2I,dMηdt=rIη-r0Mη.dIs1dt=β[(Ns1-Is1-Rs1)I-(N-I-R)Is1]-η(N-I-R)ωpMs1(p+M)2BK+B-KBs1(K+B)21-ωMp+M+η(Ns1-Is1-Rs1)1-ωMp+MB(K+B)-(υ+α+d)Is1,dRs1dt=υIs1-(δ+d)Rs1,dNs1dt=-dNs1-αIs1,dBs1dt=sBs1-s0Bs1+1-θMm+MI+s11-θMm+MIs1-s1θmMs1(m+M)2I,dMs1dt=rIs1-r0Ms1.dIrdt=β[(Nr-Ir-Rr)I-(N-I-R)Ir]-η(N-I-R)ωpMr(p+M)2BK+B-KBr(K+B)21-ωMp+M+η(Nr-Ir-Rr)1-ωMp+MB(K+B)-(υ+α+d)Ir,dRrdt=υIr-(δ+d)Rr,dNrdt=-dNr-αIr,dBrdt=sBr-s0Br+s11-θMm+MIr-s1θmMr(m+M)2I,dMrdt=I+rIr-r0Mr.

With the chosen set of parameter values given in Table 3, we have calculated both semi-relative and logarithmic sensitivity solutions to determine the effect of η, s1 and r on the number of infected individuals (I) and bacterial density (B). Figure 9 shows that doubling η, there will be an increase of 21 in the number of infectives over 30 days period. If the bacteria shedding rate s1 gets doubled, the infectives number will increase by 10, whereas it is reduced by 12 over a period of 30 days, if the growth rate of media programs r gets doubled. 300 cells/ml3 and 800 cells/ml3 adds to bacteria density with doubling η and s1, respectively. Doubling r, the bacteria density is reduced by 1900 cells/ml3, over 30 days period. Figure 10 gives the percentage change in the number of infectives and bacterial density. η and s1 having positive impact on number of infected individual as well as bacterial density, whereas r has negative impact on both.

Fig. 9.

Fig. 9

Semi-relative sensitivity plot of the variables I(t) and B(t) with respect to η, s1, and r

Fig. 10.

Fig. 10

Logarithmic sensitivity plot of the variables I(t) and B(t) with respect to η, s1, and r

Conclusion

Media plays a vital role in shaping a society, paves pathway for the development of community as it connects almost every people by some means. In this paper, a nonlinear model is formulated to analyze the effect of precautionary measures and sanitation practices broadcasted through the media programs to control the invasion of the bacterial diseases in human population. Some media programs make people aware about the disease so that they adapt proper precautions to avoid getting infected and some focus on sanitation practices that help to reduce the density of bacteria in the environment. In the modeling phenomenon, total human population is classified into three classes; susceptible, infected and recovered. The bacterial density in the environment and the cumulative number of media programs are also taken as state variables. Due to dissemination of precautionary measures via media people adapt proper precautions that minimizes the ingestion of bacteria from the environment. Therefore, the transmission rate from susceptible to infected class is considered as a decreasing function of media programs. Infected people are also become aware of the sanitation practices due the continuous broadcast of programs regarding the sanitation practices via media. So the infected people also adapt precautions to dump their wastes properly in appropriate area and take care of personal hygiene. Thus they restrict the increment of bacterial density in the environment.

All feasible equilibria (disease free and endemic) are obtained. The linear and nonlinear stability of endemic equilibrium are discussed. Basic reproduction number R0 is calculated, and one can see both transmission rates β and η have fair contribution to the cumulative basic reproduction number (R0). R0 can be written as R0=RD+RI, where direct (human–human) transmission rate β contributes to RD and indirect (environment–human) transmission rate η contributes to RI. So, even if one of (RD) or (RI) is less than unity, the other part may raise the cumulative number above unity which implies that the disease would persist in the community. The disease dies out if it is possible to keep R0 below unity. The system shows transcritical bifurcation in forward direction between disease-free and endemic equilibria, with respect to R0 (obtained by varying β). Our obtained results show that efficacy of programs broadcasted through media to disseminate precautionary and sanitation awareness plays significant role in reducing size of infected class. In fact disease gradually dissappears with the increase of the efficacies of the awareness programs. More precisely, we can infer that precautionary measures related programs are more effective in reducing the size of infected class in comparison with the sanitary practices. So, concerned authorities and government should not only just broadcast the programs through media but also have to look after their effectiveness to get the desired results. From the sensitivity analysis, it is concluded that the bacteria shedding rate and transfer rate to infected class from susceptible have positive impact on the number of infectives but the growth rate of media programs has negative impact on both infectives and bacterial density. So, the epidemic outbreak can be controlled with appropriate control over these parameters. Our study highlights that both precautionary measures and sanitation strategies are constructive measures to control the spread of infectious bacterial diseases in the population.

Acknowledgements

Rabindra Kumar Gupta is thankful to UGC Nepal for partial financial support in the form of “PhD Fellowship and Research Support” (No. PhD/76-77 S &T-17)and Soumitra Pal is thankful to the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research(CSIR), Government of India for providing financial support in the form of senior research fellowship (File.No. 09/013(0915)/2019-EMR-I).The authors are thankful to anonymous reviewers and the editor for their valuable comments and suggestions, which have helped in improving the paper. 

Appendix A

Proof

System (1) can be written as

dVdt=AV+D,

with V=[S,I,R,B,M]t, and

A=-A110δ00A21-A220000υ-(δ+d)000A420-s200r00-r0,

where

A11=βI+η1-ωMp+MBK+B+d,A21=βI+η1-ωMp+MBK+B,A22=ν+α+d,A42=s11-θMm+M.

and D=[Λ,0,0,0,r0M0]T. since all entries of the matrix A except in the diagonal are all non negative, it is Metzler matrix in VR+5. It means that the trajectories of system (1) emerging from the initial point in VR+5 remain therein for all time t. That is the system (1) is positively invariant with respect to VR+5. Now, from Eq. (2c) we have

dNdt+dN=Λ-αIΛ.

Its solution is obtained by applying standard comparison theorem as follows:

0N(t)Λd+N(0)-Λde-dt.

This implies limtsupN(t)Λd. Hence, we have 0N(t)Λdt>0. Now, we have

d(N-I-R)dt=Λ-(βI+BK+B+d)(N-I-R)+δR.

We have, d(N-I-R)dt=Λ+δR>0, if 0=(N-I-R), this implies 0(N-I-R). Hence, 0(I+R)NΛd.

Again, taking Eq. (2d) with IΛd, we get

dBdts1Λd-s2B.

By the theory of differential inequality, we get

limtsupB(t)s1Λds2.

This gives, 0B(t)s1Λds2 for all t>0. Furthermore, Eq. (2e) gives,

dMdtrΛd-r0(M-M0).

Using the concept of differential inequality

limtsupMrΛdr0+M0.

This yields 0M(t)rΛdr0+M0 for all t>0. Therefore, it is conculded that Ω is an attracting set which means that every feasible solution of the system (2) is confined in this region.

Appendix B

Proof

Consider the Lyapunav function

L=12ε12+12k1ε22+12k2ε32+12k3ε42+12k4ε52.

where, ki, i=1,,4 are constants which are all positive and are to be chosen relevantly. εj, j=1,,5 are small changes in I, R, N, B and M, respectively. The time derivative of L with linearized model system (2) is given by

dLdt=-b11ε12-k1(δ+d)ε22-k2dε32-k3s2ε42-k4r0ε52+(k1υ-b12)ε1ε2+(b13-k2α)ε1ε3+(k3b41+b14)ε1ε4+(k4r-b15)ε1ε5+k3b45ε4ε5.

where,

b11=η1-ωMp+MBK+B(N-I)R+βI,b12=b13=βI+ηBK+B1-ωMp+M,b14=ηK(K+B)21-ωMp+M(N-I-R),b15=ηωpB(N-I-R)(K+B)(p+M)2,b41=s11-θMm+M,b45=s1θmI(m+M)2.

Choosing, k1=b12υ, k2=b13α and k4=b15r, we have

dLdt=-b11ε12-k1(δ+d)ε22-k2dε32-k3s2ε42-k4r0ε52+(k3b41+b14)ε1ε4+k3b45ε4ε5.

dLdt<0 if the inequalities stated below are verified,

3k3b412<4s2b11. 13
3b142<2k3b11s2. 14
3k3rb452<4r0s2b15. 15

From inequalities (13), (14) and (15), we have

3b1422b11s2<k3<2s23min{b11b412,2r0b15rb452}. 16

The value of k3 is obtained from (16) satisfying the inequality (10).

Appendix C

Proof

Let us define a positive definite function to establish the global stability of E compatible with the reduced system (2) as,

G=I-I1+lnII+m12(R-R)2+m22(N-N)2+m32(B-B)2+m42(M-M)2. 17

where mis(i=1,,4) are constant which are all positive and to be chosen relevantly. The derivative of G with respect to time including the model system (2) with m1=βυ and m2=βα is given by,

dGdt=-β+η(N-R)II1-ωMp+MBK+B(I-I)2-β(δ+d)υ(R-R)2-βdα(N-N)2-m3s2(B-B)2-m4r0(M-M)2+ηI1-ωMp+MBK+B(I-I)(N-N)-ηI1-ωMp+MBK+B(I-I)(R-R)+(N-I-R)I1-ωMp+M×Kη(K+B)(K+B)(B-B)(I-I)-(N-I-R)Iωpη(p+M)(p+M)×B(K+B)(M-M)(I-I)+m3s11-θMm+M(B-B)(I-I)-m3θmI(m+M)(m+M)(B-B)(M-M)+m4r(I-I)(M-M).

dGdt<0 in the domain of attraction Ω if the following conditions hold:

ηΛs1ds2KI2<2β2d3α, 18
ηΛs1ds2KI2<2β2(δ+d)3υ, 19
N-I-RI1-ωMp+MηK+B2<2m3βs29, 20
N-I-RIωp+MΛηs1dKs22<2m4βr03, 21
m3s12<2βs29, 22
m3θIm+M2<4r0m4s29, 23
m4<2βr09r2. 24

From the inequalities (18) and (19), we get the inequality (11). Also from the inequality (24), choosing the value of m4=βr09r2 and then using inequalities (20), (22), and (23) the positive value of m3 can be obtained satisfying the inequality (12).

Data availibility

The data that support the findings of this study are available within the article.

Declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflicts to disclose.

Footnotes

Publisher's Note

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Contributor Information

Rabindra Kumar Gupta, Email: gupta.rabindra04@gmail.com.

Soumitra Pal, Email: soumitrapal8@gmail.com.

A. K. Misra, Email: akmisra_knp@yahoo.com

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Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available within the article.


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