Global dynamics of a tuberculosis transmission model with age of infection and incomplete treatment

Abstract

In this paper, a mathematical model describing tuberculosis transmission with incomplete treatment and continuous age structure for latently infected and infectious individuals is investigated. It is assumed in the model that the treated individuals may enter either the latent compartment due to the remainder of Mycobacterium tuberculosis or the infectious compartment due to the treatment failure. It is shown that the global transmission dynamics of the disease is fully determined by the basic reproduction number. The asymptotic smoothness of the semi-flow generated by the system is established. By analyzing the corresponding characteristic equations, the local stability of a disease-free steady state and an endemic steady state of the model is established. By using the persistence theory for infinite dimensional system, the uniform persistence of the system is established when the basic reproduction number is greater than unity. By means of suitable Lyapunov functionals and LaSalle’s invariance principle, it is proven that if the basic reproduction number is less than unity, the disease-free steady state is globally asymptotically stable; if the basic reproduction number is greater than unity, the endemic steady state is globally asymptotically stable.