Mathematical analysis for an age-structured SIRS epidemic model

In this paper, we investigate an SIRS epidemic model with chronological age structure in a demographic steady state. Although the age-structured SIRS model is a simple extension of the well-known age-structured SIR epidemic model, we have to develop new technique to deal with problems due to the reversion of susceptibility for recovered individuals. First we give a standard proof for the well-posedness of the normalized age-structured SIRS model. Next we examine existence of endemic steady states by fixed point arguments and bifurcation method, where we introduce the next generation operator and the basic reproduction number R₀ to formulate endemic threshold results. Thirdly we investigate stability of steady states by the bifurcation calculation and the comparison method, and we show existence of a compact attractor and discuss the global behavior based on the population persistence theory. Finally we give some numerical examples and discuss the effect of mass-vaccination on R₀ and the critical coverage of immunization based on the reinfection threshold.