Optimal Control Analysis of Influenza Epidemic Model

Abstract

The implementation of optimal control strategies involving preventive measures and antiviral treatment can significantly reduce the number of clinical cases of influenza. In this paper, a model for the transmission dynamics of influenza is formulated and two control strategies involving preventive measures (awareness campaign, washing hand, using hand sanitizer, wearing mask) and treatment are considered and used to minimize the total number of infected individuals and associated cost of using these two controls. The resulting optimality system is solved numerically. Hamiltonian is formulated to investigate the existence of the optimal control, in the optimal control model. Pontryagin’s Maximum Principle is applied to describe the control variables and the objective function is designed to reduce both the infection and the cost of interventions. From the numerical simulation, it is observed that in the case of high contact rate ( β = 3), both the controls work for a longer period of time to reduce the disease burden. The optimal control analysis and numerical simulations reveal that the interventions reduce the number of exposed and infected individuals.