Modelling homosexual and heterosexual transmissions of hepatitis B virus in China

• Main Authors: Min Lu, Yaqin Shu, Jicai Huang, Shigui Ruan, Xinan Zhang, Lan Zou
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2021-01-01
• Series: Journal of Biological Dynamics
• Subjects: hepatitis b virus; heterosexual transmission; homosexual transmission; mathematical modelling; basic reproduction number; sensitivity analysis
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17513758.2021.1896797
• ISSN: 1751-3758; 1751-3766

Studies have shown that sexual transmission, both heterosexually and homosexually, is one of the main ways of HBV infection. Based on this fact, we propose a mathematical model to study the sexual transmission of HBV among adults by classifying adults into men and women and considering both same-sex and opposite-sex transmissions of HBV in adults. Firstly, we calculate the basic reproduction number $ R_{0} $ and the disease-free equilibrium point $ E_{0} $ . Secondly, by analysing the sensitivity of $ R_{0} $ in terms of model parameters, we find that the infection rate among people who have same-sex partners, the frequency of homosexual contact and the immunity rate of adults play important roles in the transmission of HBV. Moreover, we use our model to fit the reported data in China and forecast the trend of hepatitis B. Our results demonstrate that popularizing the basic knowledge of HBV among residents, advocating healthy and reasonable sexual life style, reducing the number of adult carriers, and increasing the immunization rate of adults are effective measures to prevent and control hepatitis B.