Effects of delayed recovery and nonuniform transmission on the spreading of diseases in complex networks

Cheng-yi Xia, Zhen Wang, Joaquin Sanz, Sandro Meloni and Yamir Moreno

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2013, vol. 392, issue 7, 1577-1585

Abstract: We investigate the effects of delaying the time to recovery (delayed recovery) and of nonuniform transmission on the propagation of diseases on structured populations. Through a mean-field approximation and large-scale numerical simulations, we find that postponing the transition from the infectious to the recovered states can largely reduce the epidemic threshold, therefore promoting the outbreak of epidemics. On the other hand, if we consider nonuniform transmission among individuals, the epidemic threshold increases, thus inhibiting the spreading process. When both mechanisms are at work, the latter might prevail, hence resulting in an increase of the epidemic threshold with respect to the standard case, in which both ingredients are absent. Our findings are of interest for a better understanding of how diseases propagate on structured populations and to a further design of efficient immunization strategies.

Keywords: Disease spreading; Complex networks; SIS model; Heterogeneous mean-field approach (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (28)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:392:y:2013:i:7:p:1577-1585

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2012.11.043

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