Dynamics of a SIR Epidemic Model of Childhood Diseases with a Saturated Incidence Rate: Continuous Model and Its Nonstandard Finite Difference Discretization

A SIR epidemic model that describes the dynamics of childhood disease with a saturated incidence rate and vaccination program at a constant rate was investigated. For the continuous model we first show its basic properties, namely, the non-negativity and boundedness of solutions. Then we investigate the existence and both local and global stability of the equilibrium points. It was found that the existence and stability properties of equilibrium points fully determined the basic reproduction number. We also propose and analyze a discrete-time analogue of the continuous childhood diseases by applying a nonstandard finite difference method. It is shown that our discrete model preserves the dynamical properties of the corresponding continuous model, such as the positivity solutions, the population conservation law, the existence of equilibrium points and their global stability properties.