Using Lie symmetries in epidemiology

Lie symmetry method has been and still is successfully applied in different problems of physics for about a hundred years, but its application in epidemiology has been rare perhaps because the ordinary differential equations studied in this field are generally of first-order in contrast with those in physics which are usually of second-order. Here we exemplify the use of Lie symmetry method in the study of mathematical models in epidemiology, and show how it complements the mathematical techniques (qualitative and numerical analysis) traditionally used.