Adaptive human behavior in epidemiological models.

The science and management of infectious disease are entering a new stage. Increasingly public policy to manage epidemics focuses on motivating people, through social distancing policies, to alter their behavior to reduce contacts and reduce public disease risk. Person-to-person contacts drive human disease dynamics.

A note on the use of optimal control on a discrete time model of influenza dynamics.

A discrete time Susceptible - Asymptomatic - Infectious - Treated - Recovered (SAITR) model is introduced in the context of influenza transmission. We evaluate the potential effect of control measures such as social distancing and antiviral treatment on the dynamics of a single outbreak. Optimal control theory is applied to identify the best way of reducing morbidity and mortality at a minimal cost.