HIV/AIDS Transmission Dynamics: Modelling the Roles of Long Distance Truck Drivers

Abstract

A mathematical model to investigate the roles of long distance truck drivers on HIV transmission dynamics was formulated and analyzed to establish the existence of disease free and endemic equilibrium points. The results show that, the disease free equilibrium point is asymptotically stable when the basic reproduction number is less than unity and unstable otherwise. Furthermore, comprehensive analyses on the two steady states (infection free and endemic) have shown that they are both globally and asymptotically stable. Sensitivity analysis is performed on the reproduction number in order to establish the relative importance of parameters, and it shows that the truck drivers have the potential of increasing the rates of transmission of HIV infections, which concurs with the numerical simulation results.

Keywords: Truck drivers; stability; equilibrium; reproduction number; sensitivity.