https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-025-06468-w
Regular Article
Spatiotemporal dynamics of HIV–measles co-infection: a coupled reaction–diffusion model with cross-infection and hospitalization effects
1
Department of Mathematics, College of Sciences and Arts, Najran University, Najran, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
2
Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT), 10140, Bangkok, Thailand
3
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Swat, Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
Received:
2
May
2025
Accepted:
23
May
2025
Published online:
17
July
2025
This study develops and analyzes a novel spatially explicit reaction–diffusion epidemic model to explore the complex interplay between HIV and measles co-infection dynamics. Building upon classical epidemic models, the proposed framework incorporates immunological exhaustion and spatial heterogeneity to better represent real-world disease spread. The model divides the population into six interacting compartments and incorporates both disease transmission and treatment pathways. The global stability of both disease-free and endemic equilibria is rigorously proven using Lyapunov functional methods. Through numerical simulations using the Crank–Nicolson operator splitting finite difference scheme, we explore the spatiotemporal dynamics and identify conditions for disease persistence or eradication. The results highlight how spatial diffusion, co-infection rates, and hospitalization impact epidemic outcomes, providing valuable insights for designing more effective intervention strategies against interacting infectious diseases. This work contributes to a deeper theoretical and numerical understanding of co-infection dynamics in heterogeneous environments.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2025
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
