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Strong approximations for some open population epidemic models

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2016

Philip O'Neill*
Affiliation:
University of Bradford
*
Postal address: Department of Mathematics, University of Bradford, Bradford, BD7 1DP, UK.

Abstract

This paper considers a class of epidemic models in which susceptibles may enter or leave the population according to a general continuous time density dependent Markov chain. A sequence of such epidemics indexed by N, the initial number of susceptibles, is constructed on the same probability space as a time-inhomogeneous birth-and-death process. A coupling argument is then used to demonstrate the strong convergence of the sequence of infectives to the birth-and-death process. This result is used to provide a threshold analysis of the epidemic model in question.

Type
Research Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Applied Probability Trust 1996 

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