Modeling the impact of awareness created by media campaigns on vaccination coverage in a variable population

Abstract

Vaccines are a core component of any preventive strategy designed to ensure the global public health. A major factor influencing the successful implementation of any immunization program is awareness and public acceptance of the vaccine. The present study focuses on potential impacts of awareness created by media campaigns on vaccination coverage of hepatitis B. In this paper, a SIR model with vital dynamics in a population of varying size is investigated, which couples hepatitis B vaccination and awareness created by media within a single framework. It is assumed that media campaigns propagate awareness about measures requisite for escaping the chances of contracting hepatitis B. The awareness created by media motivates people to get vaccinated and attain full immunization against hepatitis B virus. For analyzing the model, stability theory of differential equations is employed. First, equilibria of the system comprising fractions of the population are obtained and their stability behavior is discussed. Then the asymptotic behavior of total population is discussed in detail. Three threshold parameters R0, R1 and R2 governing the dynamics of infection and total population are also affirmed. The findings of numerical simulations are also in line with analytically obtained results. © 2014 World Scientific Publishing Company.