State and Parameter Estimation for a Schistosomiasis Model

Speaker: Abderrahman Iggidr, INRIA Nancy.

Date: 18 dec 2019, 14h.

Place: Room 407, Bloco H, Campus Gragoatá, UFF.

Abstract: We develop a  framework to estimate the proportion of infected snails and snail-human transmission parameter of a class of models that describes the evolution of schistosomiasis. To do so, we consider simultaneously the dynamics of schistosomiasis, captured by the homogeneous version of the classical MacDonald's model, and the measurable output: the number of female schistosomes per single host. The proposed method consists of designing an auxiliary dynamical system, called observer, whose solutions converge exponentially to those of the system capturing the schistosomiasis model. Moreover, we derive an estimation of the snail-human transmission rate, an unknown but  key parameter in the dynamics of schistosomiasis. These estimations are central in two of the strategies of controlling schistosomiasis, namely the use of molluscicides and mass drug administration.

(Prof. Iggidr´s visit is part of the project “Modelagem Numérica e Matemática em Aplicações Biológicas e Médicas”, financed by CAPES-PRINT UFF.)