Many parasites induce decreased host movement (lethargy) which can impact disease spread and the evolution of virulence. Mathematical models have investigated virulence evolution when parasites cause host death, but disease-induced decreased host movement has received less attention. We investigated virulence evolution where, due to the within-host parasite replication rate an infected host can become lethargic and shift from a moving to a resting state where it can die. In this talk, I will present a virulence evolution model with two discrete movement states (moving and resting), the evolutionary dynamics of the system, the main results, and one application of the model.

Bio: Abdou Fofana is a Postdoctoral Associate at the Institute for Health System Innovation and Policy (IHSIP) in the Social Innovation on Drug Resistance Postdoctoral Program (SIDR) at Boston University. He joined the SIDR program to work on the social and behavioral drivers of South Africa’s tuberculosis (TB) and rifampicin-resistant TB epidemic using TB patients’ data and mathematical model. During his PhD, Abdou worked on the trade-off hypothesis for virulence evolution and spatially extended mathematical models to understand disease spread.

Link to the preprint: https://doi.org/10.1101/623660