The Impact of the Number of Hospital Beds and Spatial Heterogeneity on an SIS Epidemic Model

To explore the impact of the number of hospital beds on the prevention and control of an infectious disease, a diffusive SIS epidemic model in a heterogeneous environment is proposed and investigated. A nonlinear recovery rate is introduced to describe the effects of the number of hospital beds on the transmission dynamics of the disease. The basic reproduction number, which depends on the number of hospital beds and spatial heterogeneity, is defined. It is shown that a sufficient number of hospital beds is very important for disease control and eradication. The numerical simulations are presented to confirm our theoretical results.