Simulations of the Spread of the Hantavirus Using Fractional Differential Equations

Abstract

In this paper we study a fractional differential equation (FDE) model which describes the spread of Hantavirus infection in a system consisting of the host species and a non-host competitor species. The host species is a mouse species of which a portion is susceptible to infection and the remaining portion is already infected. The main reason we propose this model is due to the condition in real ecosystems where mice compete for resources with other species and the interaction processes among species in the ecosystem become an important agent in controlling the Hantavirus infection. Our results show our FDE model is able to reproduce results which are consistent with a previous study involving ordinary differential equations. Keywords: Fractional Differential Equation; Simulation; Hantavirus infection 2010 Mathematics Subject Classification 26A33; 81T80; 92D25