Abstract
Abstract This paper deals with the mathematical analysis of a general class of epidemiological models with multiple infectious stages for the transmission dynamics of a communicable disease. We provide a theoretical study of the model. We derive the basic reproduction number <m:math xmlns:m="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <m:msub> <m:mrow> <m:mi>R</m:mi> </m:mrow> <m:mn>0</m:mn> </m:msub> </m:math> $\mathcal R_0$ that determines the extinction and the persistence of the infection. We show that the disease-free equilibrium is globally asymptotically stable whenever <m:math xmlns:m="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <m:msub> <m:mrow> <m:mi>R</m:mi> </m:mrow> <m:mn>0</m:mn> </m:msub> <m:mo>≤</m:mo> <m:mn>1</m:mn> </m:math> $\mathcal R_0 \leq 1$ , while when <m:math xmlns:m="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <m:msub> <m:mrow> <m:mi>R</m:mi> </m:mrow> <m:mn>0</m:mn> </m:msub> <m:mo>></m:mo> <m:mn>1</m:mn> </m:math> $\mathcal R_0 \gt 1$ , the disease-free equilibrium is unstable and there exists a unique endemic equilibrium point which is globally asymptotically stable. A case study for tuberculosis (TB) is considered to numerically support the analytical results.