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Comparisons for carrier-borne epidemics in heterogeneous and homogeneous populations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2016

Claude Lefevre*
Affiliation:
Université Libre de Bruxelles
Marie-Pierre Malice*
Affiliation:
University of Kentucky
*
Postal address: Université Libre de Bruxelles, Institut de Statistique, Campus Plaine, C.P. 210, Boulevard du Triomphe, B-1050 Bruxelles, Belgium.
∗∗Postal address: University of Kentucky, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Statistics, Lexington, KY 40506–0027, USA.

Abstract

Two specific models for the spread of a carrier-borne epidemic are considered which allow for individual variability. The implications of differences in the infection or removal rates are investigated by comparing the propagation of the disease for heterogeneous and homogeneous populations. This is achieved by means of the stochastically larger and more variable order relations for random variables. The results obtained extend earlier ones and are illustrated with some numerical examples.

Type
Research Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Applied Probability Trust 1988 

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Footnotes

This research was supported by a grant of the Belgian F.N.R.S. The work was carried out while the author was visiting the Statistics and Applied Probability Program, University of California, Santa Barbara.

This paper was prepared with the partial support of the Office of Naval Research under Contract N00014–86-K-0019.

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