A compartmental model for antibiotic resistant bacterial infections over networks

Abstract

This paper presents a compartmental model for bacterial infections in a population distributed over a network of individuals. Within each node, individuals interact, bacteria can be transmitted and the disease may be spread; moreover, the acquisition of bacterial antibiotic resistance is considered. In addition, nodes are connected through weighted edges, and consequently individuals from different nodes may interact. As a result, the infection may be propagated over the network. We perform an analysis on this propagation as well as numerical simulations in order to illustrate the validity of the model.