Atkinson and Reuter(1) consider travelling wave solutions for the deterministic epidemic, with or without removals, spreading along the line. In the case where there are no removals, they reformulate the problem in terms of the solutions X(·) to the integral equation
which satisfy X(− ∞) = − ∞, X( + ∞) = 0, X(u) < 0 for u ∈ (− ∞, ∞), where
is the left hand tail of the contact distribution, and where ʗ > 0 is the velocity of the wave corresponding to X. They show that no solution is possible unless
converges for λ > 0 sufficiently small, and that any solution X must satisfy
for some C > 0. They then prove the following existence theorems.