A unified inter-host and in-host model of antibiotic resistance and infection spread in a hospital ward
Authored by Barry Lawson, Lester Caudill
Date Published: 2017
DOI: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2017.03.025
Sponsors:
No sponsors listed
Platforms:
MATLAB
Model Documentation:
Other Narrative
Mathematical description
Model Code URLs:
Model code not found
Abstract
As the battle continues against hospital-acquired infections and the
concurrent rise in antibiotic resistance among many of the major
causative pathogens, there is a dire need to conduct controlled
experiments, in order to compare proposed control strategies. However,
cost, time, and ethical considerations make this evaluation strategy
either impractical or impossible to implement with living patients. This
paper presents a multi-scale model that offers promise as the basis for
a tool to simulate these (and other) controlled experiments. This is a
``unified{''} model in two important ways: (i) It combines inter host
and in-host dynamics into a single model, and (ii) it links two very
different modeling approaches agent-based modeling and differential
equations - into a single model. The potential of this model as an
instrument to combat antibiotic resistance in hospitals is demonstrated
with numerical examples. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Tags
Agent-based models
mathematical models
Nosocomial infection
Differential equations
Prevalence
transmission
antibiotic resistance
Mathematical-model
Population-dynamics
Impact
Pseudomonas-aeruginosa
Staphylococcus-aureus
Care-associated infections
Antimicrobial resistance
Bacterial-resistance