The Effect of Pulse Vaccination on the Transmission Dynamics of Rotavirus Diarrhea

Diarrhea is the third most fatal disease in the developing countries. Approximately 611,000 children die each year due to effect of rotavirus infection. Rotavirus also causes gastroenteritis in adults and it is the main cases of travellers’ diarrhea. After initial contact, children are more susceptible to be affected with diarrhoeal illnesses of any kind, but the repeatition of infections with rotavirus tend to be less severe than the original infection. Rotavirus continues to persist, is attributed to the different modes of transmission among the pathogens. To fight against this problem, several rotavirus vaccines have been developed. Federal Drug Administration (FDA) approved drugs within the last two years are currently in use. These vaccines present a degree of protection from rotavirus infection. We formulate a model of the spread of rotavirus diarrhea based on a continuous time ordinary differential equations model. We further expand the model to investigate the effects of pulse vaccination. We use computer simulations to further analyze the effect of vaccination as a controlled method. We find the minimum levels of vaccination necessary in this model to eradicate severe rotavirus disease