Waterborne, abiotic and other indirectly transmitted (W.A.I.T.) infections are defined by the dynamics of free-living pathogens and environmental reservoirs

Miles D. Miller-Dickson; Victor A. Meszaros; Francis Baffour-Awuah; Salvador Almagro-Moreno; C. Brandon Ogbunugafor

The HCV model describes a population of approximately 170,000 individuals-based on estimates of the size of the IDU community in New York City [56] -where infected injection drug users may migrate into the population. In this model, needles serve as the environmental intermediate for infection, and the sharing of infected needles will constitute the means of transmitting new infection. Note that while the term "needle" is only one part of a syringe, we use it to refer to the entire syringe. HCV can also be transmitted sexually [57] , but in this paper we restrict our attention to transmission through infected needles. As with the cholera model, this section of the main text focuses on the main structure and dynamical properties of the model. Further model details and discussion can be found in the Supplemental Appendix.