Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T15:35:25.765Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Some majorization orderings of heterogeneity in a class of epidemics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2016

Y. L. Tong*
Affiliation:
Georgia Institute of Technology
*
Postal address: School of Mathematics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332–0160, USA.

Abstract

The theory of majorization is applied to investigate the effects of heterogeneity in a class of epidemics. In particular, the heterogeneity of the components of the contact vector of a given susceptible is studied. It is shown that if the heterogeneity can be partially ordered through majorization, then the probability functions of escaping infection can be similarly ordered. The results can be applied to AIDS research on the spread of the HIV virus.

Type
Research Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Applied Probability Trust 1997 

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

Bailey, N. T. J. (1975) The Mathematical Theory of Infectious Diseases and Its Applications. Griffin, London.Google Scholar
Ball, F. G. (1985) Deterministic and stochastic epidemics with several kinds of susceptibles. Adv. Appl. Prob. 17, 122.Google Scholar
Becker, N. and Marschner, I. (1990) The effect of heterogeneity on the spread of disease. In Stochastic Processes in Epidemic Theory. ed. Gabriel, J.-P., Lefèvre, C. and Picard, P. Springer, Berlin. pp. 90103.Google Scholar
Eisenberg, B. (1991) The effect of variable infectivity on the risk of HIV infection. Statist. Medicine 9, 131139.Google Scholar
El-Neweihi, E., Proschan, F. and Sethuraman, J. (1986) Optimal allocation of components in parallel-series and series-parallel systems. J. Appl. Prob. 23, 770777.Google Scholar
Hickey, R. J. (1983) Majorization, randomness and some discrete distributions. J. Appl. Prob. 20, 897902.Google Scholar
Lefevre, C. (1994) Stochastic ordering of epidemics. In Stochastic Orders and Their Applications. ed. Shaked, M. and Shanthikumar, G. J. Academic Press, Boston. pp. 323348.Google Scholar
Lefevre, C. and Malice, M.-P. (1988) Comparison for carrier-borne epidemics in heterogeneous and homogeneous populations. J. Appl. Prob. 25, 663674.Google Scholar
Malice, M.-P. and Lefevre, C. (1988) On some effects of variability in the Weiss epidemic model. Commun. Statist. - Theory Meth. 17, 37233731.Google Scholar
Marshall, A. W. and Olkin, I. (1979) Inequalities: Theory of Majorization and Its Applications. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Tong, Y. L. (1977) An ordering theorem for conditionally independent and identically-distributed random variables. Ann. Statist. 5, 274277.Google Scholar
Tong, Y. L. (1990) The Multivariate Normal Distribution. Springer, Berlin.Google Scholar
Weiss, G. H. (1965) On the spread of epidemics by carriers. Biometrics 21, 481490.Google Scholar