Fractional modeling for the spread of Hookworm infection under Caputo operator

Abstract

It is estimated that, about one billion people mostly from Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America are infected with the Hookworm infection. In this paper, we developed and analyzed a model for the transmission dynamics of Hookworm infection in a human population using Caputo fractional order differential operator. Under Caputo operator, existence and uniqueness for the solutions of the new Hookworm infection model have been analyzed using fixed point theorems. Parameters of the model are estimated with the help of real statistics available for the Hookworm infection from a city of Ghana and the best fit is obtained under the nonlinear least-squares curve fitting technique. Further analysis of the proposed model shows that the disease free (infection-absent) equilibrium is locally asymptotically stable whenever a certain reproduction number R0 < 1 and the endemic (infection-present) equilibrium point is globally asymptotically stable whenever R0 < 1 and unstable if R0 > 1. Using forward normalized sensitivity index, the most sensitive parameters are identified that are essential for control of the infection and we obtained different types of simulations for the proposed Hookworm transmission system with the best fitted fractional order parameter (χ). The modelling results show that the chemotherapy treatment, awareness and improvement of personal hygiene are the best measures to be taken for control of the Hookworm infection among vulnerable community.