Convergence to equilibrium states for a reaction-diffusion system modelling the spatial spread of a class of bacterial and viral diseases

Abstract

A reaction-diffusion system which describes the spatial spread of bacterial diseases is studied. It consists of two nonlinear parabolic equations which concern the evolution of the bacteria population and of the human infective population in an urban community, respectively. Different boundary conditions of the third type are considered, for the two variables. This model is suitable to study oro-faecal transmitted diseases in the European Mediterranean regions. A threshold parameter is introduced such that for suitable values of it the epidemic eventually tends to extinction, otherwise a globally asymptotically stable spatially inhomogeneous stationary endemic state appears. The case in which the bacteria diffuse but the human population does not, has also been considered.