Modeling the impact of campaign program on the prevalence of anemia in children under five

Abstract

Anemia, a global health problem, is increasing worldwide and affecting both developed and developingcountries. Being a blood disorder, anemia may occur in any stages of life but it is quite common in childrenunder the age of five. Globally, iron deficiency is the supreme contributor towards the onset of anemia. In thispaper, a general model based on the dynamics of anemia among children under five is formulated. The populationis divided in three classes such as susceptible, affected and treated. A time-dependent control measurenamely campaign program is considered. The model has an equilibrium point and the stability of the pointis analyzed. Moreover, sensitivity of the equilibrium point is also performed to discover the critical parameters.Numerical simulations are carried out to observe the dynamic behavior of the model. Results showthat campaign program is effective in minimizing the disease progression. The number of child patients andyearly deaths significantly decrease with accelerated campaign program that is implemented earlier whereastermination of the applied measure may upturn the burden. Findings also reveal that application of controlmeasure helps to reduce the prevalence of anemia but may not eliminate the disease.