A mathematical model to study the 2014-2015 large-scale dengue epidemics in Kaohsiung and Tainan cities in Taiwan, China.

Dengue virus (DENV) infection is endemic in many places of the tropical and subtropical regions, which poses serious public health threat globally. We develop and analyze a mathematical model to study the transmission dynamics of the dengue epidemics. Our qualitative analyzes show that the model has two equilibria, namely the disease-free equilibrium (DFE) which is locally asymp- totically stable when the basic reproduction number (R) is less than one and unstable if R > 1, and endemic equilibrium (EE) which is globally asymp-totically stable when R > 1.

Different responses of influenza epidemic to weather factors among Shanghai, Hong Kong, and British Columbia.

Weather factors have long been considered as key sources for regional heterogeneity of influenza seasonal patterns. As influenza peaks coincide with both high and low temperature in subtropical cities, weather factors may nonlinearly or interactively affect influenza activity. This study aims to assess the nonlinear and interactive effects of weather factors with influenza activity and compare the responses of influenza epidemic to weather factors in two subtropical regions of southern China (Shanghai and Hong Kong) and one temperate province of Canada (British Columbia).