On a continuous-time multi-group bi-virus model with human awareness

This paper studies the effect of human awareness on a distributed continuous-time bi-virus model in which two competing viruses diffuse over a network comprised of multiple groups of individuals. When contacting infected individuals in their own and neighboring groups, individuals may either be infected by one of the two viruses with a virus-dependent infection rate or become alert. Alert individuals may be infected by either virus but with a smaller virus-dependent infection rate, and the alert state also diffuses over the network. Limiting behaviors of the model are studied by analyzing the equilibria of the system and their stability. Both equilibria and their stability are compared with those of the model without human awareness.