The Mathematical Theory of Infectious Diseases.

This IMA Volume in Mathematics and its Applications MATHEMATICAL APPROACHES FOR EMERGING AND REEMERGING INFECTIOUS DISEASES: MODELS, AND THEORY METHODS is based on the proceedings of a successful one week workshop. The pro­ ceedings of the two-day tutorial which preceded the workshop "Introduction to Epidemiology and Immunology" appears as IMA Volume 125: Math­ ematical Approaches for Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases: An Introduction.

MATRIX is Australia’s international and residential mathematical research institute. It facilitates new collaborations and mathematical advances through intensive residential research programs, each 1-4 weeks in duration. This book is a scientific record of the ten programs held at MATRIX in 2019 and the two programs held in January 2020:

Mathematical modelling plays a special role in ecology. Although traditional ecology is a largely empirical science, replicated experiments are not often possible because of the high complexity of ecological interactions and the impossibility to reproduce the weather conditions. Moreover, large-scale field experiments (where the consequences are usually not fully known) can be damaging for the ecological communities and costly or even dangerous for humans. Mathematical modelling provides an efficient supplement and sometimes even a substitute to an empirical study; it creates a virtual laboratory where different hypotheses can be tested safely, and at relatively low cost.

This book introduces advanced mathematical methods and techniques for analysis and simulation of models in mathematical epidemiology. Chronological age and class-age play an important role in the description of infectious diseases and this text provides the tools for the analysis of this type of partial differential equation models.