Melnikov analysis of chaos in a general epidemiological model

The purpose of this paper is to study a SIR model of epidemic dynamics with a periodically modulated nonlinear incidence rate. We must go, for the first time, through a series of coordinate transformations to bring the equations into amenable to Melnikov analysis. This analysis establishes mathematically the existence of chaotic motion of the models by Melnikov's method. The numerical simulations are made for the conclusions in this paper. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.