Vaccinating behaviour and the dynamics of vaccine preventable infections

A main research area in the behavioural epidemiology (BE) of infectious diseases deals with the modelling of vaccinating behaviour under voluntary immunisation. We attempt to provide a broad overview of our research work on the subject, by separately analysing a general prevalence-based framework, where vaccine uptake is taken as a function of the relevant information used by parents to immunise their children, such as the prevalence (or incidence) of infection, of serious disease, or of vaccine associated side effects, and an imitation-based framework where behaviour perceived as optimal spreads through spontaneous communication between individuals about the benefits and cost of vaccination. We also discuss the relationships between the two modelling framework. Finally, we supply new results concerning the impact of realistic information kernels and the appearance of chaotic oscillations due to the interplay of periodic contact patterns and vaccinating behaviour.