Mathematical Biology and Infectious Diseases

A special issue of Mathematics (ISSN 2227-7390). This special issue belongs to the section "E3: Mathematical Biology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 September 2025) | Viewed by 1650

Special Issue Editors

Department of Public Health Sciences, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2901 University City Blvd., Charlotte, NC 28223, USA
Interests: mathematical biology; infectious diseases dynamics; epidemic analytics and modeling; data mining; machine learning and deep learning
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Guest Editor
Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Interests: mathematical and computational biology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Mathematical biology provides theoretical foundations for elucidating and characterizing various infectious disease dynamics in the coupled ecological and epidemiological system. Several large epidemics in the 21st Century, including the original SARS, Ebola, Zika, and COVID-19, have demonstrated the importance of the mathematical modeling of infectious diseases for effective decision support. While a large number of epidemic models have been developed recently, many of them focus on human populations (such as human population-level SEIR-type compartment models). Other important biological and ecological factors, such as pathogen evolution (e.g., changing infectivity, virulence, and resistance to current treatments), vector and non-human carriers’ population dynamics, environmental variability (e.g., fluctuations in temperature and other important ambient variables), and landscape heterogeneity (e.g., the fragmentation of landscapes that are important for vector and zoonotic hosts), should be considered in current epidemic models for a more accurate depiction of the coupled eco-epidemiological system. Understanding these factors, as well as their nonlinear interactions, is essential to developing and evaluating intervention strategies. An array of non-conventional cross-scale biological data, from multi-omics to ecosystems, can be synthesized and utilized for more effective epidemic modeling.

In this Special Issue, we encourage submissions providing cutting-edge methodologies and innovative insights in the interface of mathematical biology and infectious diseases. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the keywords provided below.

Dr. Shi Chen
Prof. Dr. Hua Chen
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • dynamical systems
  • data-driven and data-infused modeling
  • multiscale modeling
  • multi-omics in epidemics
  • ecology and evolution of infectious diseases

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

25 pages, 5540 KB  
Article
Modeling Intervention Strategies to Control Hepatitis C Outbreak and Related Mortality in Bangladesh
by Md Abdul Kuddus, Sazia Khatun Tithi and Subir Sarker
Mathematics 2025, 13(18), 3009; https://doi.org/10.3390/math13183009 - 17 Sep 2025
Viewed by 1011
Abstract
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) remains a critical public health concern globally, including in Bangladesh. In this study, we employed a mathematical modeling framework to analyze the national dynamics of HCV infections and associated mortality in Bangladesh. Utilizing surveillance data from the Directorate General [...] Read more.
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) remains a critical public health concern globally, including in Bangladesh. In this study, we employed a mathematical modeling framework to analyze the national dynamics of HCV infections and associated mortality in Bangladesh. Utilizing surveillance data from the Directorate General of Health Services, we examined the epidemiological trajectory of HCV and assessed the impact of various intervention strategies. The Next Generation Matrix approach was employed to derive basic reproduction numbers, and the model was calibrated with observed HCV incidence data to estimate some model parameter values. We conducted sensitivity analysis to assess how variations in model parameters affect HCV prevalence, revealing that transmission rates of both drug-susceptible and drug-resistant strains have the greatest impact. Additionally, bifurcation analysis was performed to examine parameter thresholds and assess the stability of the system. We then used the model to estimate the impacts of various intervention policies on reducing HCV cases and deaths. Among single interventions, increased effective treatment for drug-susceptible cases proved to be the most rapid and effective strategy for reducing the total number of both drug-susceptible and drug-resistant HCV cases, as well as mortality. Additionally, our results imply that combining interventions increases their overall effectiveness, achieving substantial reductions in cases and deaths with relatively modest investment. However, complete eradication of HCV in Bangladesh would require significantly greater resources. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mathematical Biology and Infectious Diseases)
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