In this paper, a mathematical model to study the impact of Twitter in controlling infectious disease is proposed. The model includes the dynamics of “tweets” which may enhance awareness of the disease and cause behavioral changes among the public, thus reducing the transmission of the disease. Furthermore, the model is improved by introducing a time delay between the outbreak of disease and the release of Twitter messages. The basic reproduction number and the conditions for the stability of the equilibria are derived. It is shown that the system undergoes Hopf bifurcation when time delay is increased. Finally, numerical simulations are given to verify the analytical results.

An epidemic model with media is proposed to describe the spread of infectious diseases in a given region. A piecewise continuous transmission rate is introduced to describe that the media has its effect when the number of the infected exceeds a certain critical level. Furthermore, it is assumed that the impact of the media on the contact transmission is described by an exponential function.Stability analysis of the model shows that the disease-free equilibrium is globally asymptotically stable if the basic reproduction number is less than unity. On the other hand, when the basic reproduction number is greater than unity, a unique endemic equilibrium exists, which is also globally asymptotically stable. Our analysis implies that media coverage plays an important role in controlling the spread of the disease. Hindawi Publishing Corporation