A cholera epidemic model in a spatiotemporally heterogeneous environment

The transmission of cholera, a water- and food-borne intestinal infection, involves complex interactions among human hosts, pathogens, and the environment, and is impacted by the spatial variation and seasonal fluctuation. In this paper, we propose a new deterministic model to investigate the spatiotemporal dynamics of cholera transmission. The model employs a reaction-convection-diffusion system to represent the spatial movement of the hosts and pathogens, and incorporates time-periodic parameters to describe the seasonality of the disease transmission and bacterial growth rates. Using the theory of principle eigenvalues, we define and analyze the basic reproduction number of this model, based on which we establish the threshold type results for cholera transmission in a spatiotemporally heterogeneous environment.