Dynamical analysis of an age-structured tuberculosis model driven by the novel M72/AS01E vaccine in contaminated environments

To assess the effectiveness of vaccination in contaminated environments, this study introduces a modeling framework that encompasses two transmission routes, namely direct human-to-human contact and indirect human-to-environment contact, as well as the implementation of new M72/AS01E vaccine. Motivated by this, a coupled age-structured tuberculosis (TB) model is proposed. Its well-posedness requirement is verified using the integrated semigroup theory. Furthermore, this study presents a comprehensive analysis of threshold dynamics associated with the proposed model. Specifically, the global stability of the disease-free and positive steady states is demonstrated by employing Lyapunov functionals. Lastly, the effects of the vaccination with M72/AS01E and contaminated environments on TB control are numerically simulated. Experimental results indicate that high concentrations of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in contaminated environments may somewhat impede TB control efforts, but that large-scale deployment of new vaccine could significantly reduce the prevalence of TB.