Ljs. Allen et Db. Thrasher, THE EFFECTS OF VACCINATION IN AN AGE-DEPENDENT MODEL FOR VARICELLA AND HERPES-ZOSTER, IEEE transactions on automatic control, 43(6), 1998, pp. 779-789
The varicella-zoster virus (VZV) is responsible for. the infectious di
seases varicella and herpes tester, more commonly known as chickenpox
and shingles. The United States Food and Drug Administration recently
approved a VZV vaccine for use in children to prevent chickenpox. The
VZV vaccine was tested in Japan, Korea, and the United States, and the
se extensive experimental investigations led to final approval in the
United States. In this paper, an age-dependent model for varicella and
herpes tester is formulated. Using statistics for the United States,
parameter values for the model are estimated and numerical solutions a
re calculated. The effects of various control strategies, designed to
decrease the number of individuals susceptible to varicella and tester
, are investigated. In particular, the effect of vaccination on the av
erage age of infection, the average number of infections per person du
ring their lifetime, and the ratio of number of tester cases after con
trol to those before control are investigated.