  Epidemiological models may give some basic guidelines for public health
practitioners, allowing to analyze issues that can influence the strategies to
prevent and fight a disease. To be used in decision-making, however, a
mathematical model must be carefully parameterized and validated with
epidemiological and entomological data. Here a SIR (S for susceptible, I for
infectious, R for recovered individuals) and ASI (A for the aquatic phase of
the mosquito, S for susceptible and I for infectious mosquitoes)
epidemiological model describing a dengue disease is presented, as well as the
associated basic reproduction number. A sensitivity analysis of the
epidemiological model is performed in order to determine the relative
importance of the model parameters to the disease transmission.
