Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T06:42:04.345Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

On the optimal control of a deterministic epidemic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2016

R. Morton
Affiliation:
University of Manchester
K. H. Wickwire
Affiliation:
University of Manchester

Abstract

A control scheme for the immunisation of susceptibles in the Kermack-McKendrick epidemic model for a closed population is proposed. The bounded control appears linearly in both dynamics and integral cost functionals and any optimal policies are of the “bang-bang” type. The approach uses Dynamic Programming and Pontryagin's Maximum Principle and allows one, for certain values of the cost and removal rates, to apply necessary and sufficient conditions for optimality and show that a one-switch candidate is the optimal control. In the remaining cases we are still able to show that an optimal control, if it exists, has at most one switch.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Applied Probability Trust 1974 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abakuks, A. (1973) An optimal isolation policy for an epidemic. J. Appl. Prob. 10, 247262.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Athans, M. and Falb, P. (1966) Optimal Control. McGraw-Hill, New York.Google Scholar
Bailey, N. (1957) The Mathematical Theory of Epidemics, Griffin, London.Google Scholar
Becker, N. G. (1970) Control of a pest population. Biometrics 26, 365375.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dietz, K. (1967) Epidemics and rumours: A survey. J. R. Statist. Soc. A 130, 505528.Google Scholar
Golomb, M. and Shanks, M. (1965) Elements of Ordinary Differential Equations. McGraw-Hill, New York.Google Scholar
Gupta, N. K. and Rink, R. E. (1973) Optimum control of epidemics. Math. Biosci. 18, 383396.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hethcote, H. W. and Waltman, P. (1973) Optimal vaccination schedules in a deterministic epidemic model. Math. Biosci. 18, 365381.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iosifescu, M. and Tautu, P. (1973) Stochastic Processes and Applications in Biology and Medicine. Springer-Verlag, New York; Heidelberg.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jaquette, D. L. (1970) A stochastic model for the optimal control of epidemics and pest populations. Math. Biosci. 8, 343354.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kermack, W. and McKendrick, A. (1927) Contributions to the mathematical theory of epidemics, Part I. Proc. Roy. Soc. A 115, 700721.Google Scholar
Kendall, D. G. (1956) Deterministic and stochastic epidemics in closed populations. Proc. Third Berkeley Symp. Math. Statist. Prob. 4, 149165. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Pontryagin, L. S. et al. (1962) The Mathematical Theory of Optimal Processes. Translated by Trirogoff, K. N.. Wiley, Interscience, New York.Google Scholar