Epidemic spreading in metapopulation networks with heterogeneous infection rates

Yong-Wang Gong, Yu-Rong Song and Guo-Ping Jiang

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2014, vol. 416, issue C, 208-218

Abstract: In this paper, we study epidemic spreading in metapopulation networks wherein each node represents a subpopulation symbolizing a city or an urban area and links connecting nodes correspond to the human traveling routes among cities. Differently from previous studies, we introduce a heterogeneous infection rate to characterize the effect of nodes’ local properties, such as population density, individual health habits, and social conditions, on epidemic infectivity. By means of a mean-field approach and Monte Carlo simulations, we explore how the heterogeneity of the infection rate affects the epidemic dynamics, and find that large fluctuations of the infection rate have a profound impact on the epidemic threshold as well as the temporal behavior of the prevalence above the epidemic threshold. This work can refine our understanding of epidemic spreading in metapopulation networks with the effect of nodes’ local properties.

Keywords: Epidemic spreading; Metapopulation network; Reaction–diffusion process (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:416:y:2014:i:c:p:208-218

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2014.08.056

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