Stability criteria for sis epidemiological models under switching policies

Abstract

We study the spread of disease in an SIS model for a structured population. The model considered is a time-varying, switched model, in which the parameters of the SIS model are subject to abrupt change. We show that the joint spectral radius can be used as a threshold parameter for this model in the spirit of the basic reproduction number for time-invariant models. We also present conditions for persistence and the existence of periodic orbits for the switched model and results for a stochastic switched model.