Infectious Diseases Modeling at Dynamics Technology, Inc.

Richard Jordan
Dynamics Technology Inc.
rjordan@dynatec.com

There is a great interest these days in the temporal dynamics and geographic spread of infectious diseases, especially diseases that are potential bioterrorism threats, such as plague, smallpox and tularemia (see http://www.bt.cdc.gov/Agent/Agentlist.asp for a list of identified threats). At Dynamics Technology, Inc., we have been developing and analyzing mathematical models of the spread of infectious diseases, especially plague and Rift Valley Fever. Our models, which are coupled systems of nonlinear ODEs, allow for interactions between several species (humans, rodents and fleas in the case of plague) and incorporate migration on varying spatial scales (between city bolcks, between different cities, states, countries, etc.). We will present some preliminary analytical and numerical results and end with a series of interesting and important open mathematical questions.