Effect of immunization on small world epidemics

D. H. ZANETTE; M. N. KUPERMAN

PHYSICA A - STATISTICAL AND THEORETICAL PHYSICS

Año: 2002 vol. 309 p. 445 - 452

0378-4371

The propagation of model epidemics on a small-world network under the action of immunizationis studied. Although the connectivity in this kind of networks is rather uniform,a vaccination strategy focused on the best connected individuals yields a considerable improvementof disease control. The model exhibits a transition from disease localization topropagation as the disorder of the underlying network grows. As a consequence, for fixeddisorder, a threshold immunization level exists above which the disease remains localized.