An exploration of modeling approaches for capturing seasonal transmission in stochastic epidemic models

Seasonal variations in the incidence of infectious diseases are a well-established phenomenon, driven by factors such as climate changes, social behaviors, and ecological interactions that influence host susceptibility and transmission rates. While seasonality plays a significant role in shaping epi...

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Main Author: Mahmudul Bari Hridoy
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: AIMS Press 2025-01-01
Series:Mathematical Biosciences and Engineering
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Online Access:https://www.aimspress.com/article/doi/10.3934/mbe.2025013
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author Mahmudul Bari Hridoy
author_facet Mahmudul Bari Hridoy
author_sort Mahmudul Bari Hridoy
collection DOAJ
description Seasonal variations in the incidence of infectious diseases are a well-established phenomenon, driven by factors such as climate changes, social behaviors, and ecological interactions that influence host susceptibility and transmission rates. While seasonality plays a significant role in shaping epidemiological dynamics, it is often overlooked in both empirical and theoretical studies. Incorporating seasonal parameters into mathematical models of infectious diseases is crucial for accurately capturing disease dynamics, enhancing the predictive power of these models, and developing successful control strategies. In this paper, I highlight key modeling approaches for incorporating seasonality into disease transmission, including sinusoidal functions, periodic piecewise linear functions, Fourier series expansions, Gaussian functions, and data-driven methods. These approaches are evaluated in terms of their flexibility, complexity, and ability to capture distinct seasonal patterns observed in real-world epidemics. A comparative analysis showcases the relative strengths and limitations of each method, supported by real-world examples. Additionally, a stochastic Susceptible-Infected-Recovered (SIR) model with seasonal transmission is demonstrated through numerical simulations. Important outcome measures, such as the basic and instantaneous reproduction numbers and the probability of a disease outbreak derived from the branching process approximation of the Markov chain, are also presented to illustrate the impact of seasonality on disease dynamics.
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spelling doaj-art-e2b38e24882d44b0947ae7988c1909de2025-08-20T03:16:58ZengAIMS PressMathematical Biosciences and Engineering1551-00182025-01-0122232435410.3934/mbe.2025013An exploration of modeling approaches for capturing seasonal transmission in stochastic epidemic modelsMahmudul Bari Hridoy0Department of Mathematics & Statistics, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas 79409-1042, USASeasonal variations in the incidence of infectious diseases are a well-established phenomenon, driven by factors such as climate changes, social behaviors, and ecological interactions that influence host susceptibility and transmission rates. While seasonality plays a significant role in shaping epidemiological dynamics, it is often overlooked in both empirical and theoretical studies. Incorporating seasonal parameters into mathematical models of infectious diseases is crucial for accurately capturing disease dynamics, enhancing the predictive power of these models, and developing successful control strategies. In this paper, I highlight key modeling approaches for incorporating seasonality into disease transmission, including sinusoidal functions, periodic piecewise linear functions, Fourier series expansions, Gaussian functions, and data-driven methods. These approaches are evaluated in terms of their flexibility, complexity, and ability to capture distinct seasonal patterns observed in real-world epidemics. A comparative analysis showcases the relative strengths and limitations of each method, supported by real-world examples. Additionally, a stochastic Susceptible-Infected-Recovered (SIR) model with seasonal transmission is demonstrated through numerical simulations. Important outcome measures, such as the basic and instantaneous reproduction numbers and the probability of a disease outbreak derived from the branching process approximation of the Markov chain, are also presented to illustrate the impact of seasonality on disease dynamics.https://www.aimspress.com/article/doi/10.3934/mbe.2025013seasonalitybranching processmarkov chaininfectious diseasestime-varying parameterstemporal dynamics
spellingShingle Mahmudul Bari Hridoy
An exploration of modeling approaches for capturing seasonal transmission in stochastic epidemic models
Mathematical Biosciences and Engineering
seasonality
branching process
markov chain
infectious diseases
time-varying parameters
temporal dynamics
title An exploration of modeling approaches for capturing seasonal transmission in stochastic epidemic models
title_full An exploration of modeling approaches for capturing seasonal transmission in stochastic epidemic models
title_fullStr An exploration of modeling approaches for capturing seasonal transmission in stochastic epidemic models
title_full_unstemmed An exploration of modeling approaches for capturing seasonal transmission in stochastic epidemic models
title_short An exploration of modeling approaches for capturing seasonal transmission in stochastic epidemic models
title_sort exploration of modeling approaches for capturing seasonal transmission in stochastic epidemic models
topic seasonality
branching process
markov chain
infectious diseases
time-varying parameters
temporal dynamics
url https://www.aimspress.com/article/doi/10.3934/mbe.2025013
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