Global Dynamics of a Social Hierarchy-Stratified Malaria Model: Insight from Fractional Calculus

Abstract

In this study, a mathematical model for the transmission dynamics of malaria among different socioeconomic groups in the human population interacting with a susceptible-infectious vector population is presented and analysed using a fractional-order derivative of the Caputo type. The total human population is stratified into two distinguished classes of lower and higher income individuals, with each class further subdivided into susceptible, infectious, and recovered populations. The socio hierachy-structured fractional-order malaria model is analyzed through the application of different dynamical system tools. The theory of positivity and boundedness based on the generalized mean value theorem is employed to investigate the basic properties of solutions of the model, while the Banach fixed point theory approach is used to prove the existence and uniqueness of the solution. Furthermore, unlike the existing related studies, comprehensive global asymptotic dynamics of the fractional-order malaria model around both disease-free and endemic equilibria are explored by generalizing the usual classical methods for establishing global asymptotic stability of the steady states. The asymptotic behavior of the trajectories of the system are graphically illustrated at different values of the fractional (noninteger) order.