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Center for Nonlinear Studies |
We consider the spread of epidemics through social networks. The standard models assume that contacts between individuals are fleeting and never repeated. However, in typical networks, contacts are repeated many times. For the large population limit of a random static network, we show a simple derivation of the equations governing epidemic spread. This method can be easily modified to consider many details of population structure or contacts of different duration. The resulting equations are of comparable complexity to the standard mass action models, but accurately predict the spread of an epidemic in a network having repeated contacts.
Host: Aric Hagberg, T-5, hagberg@lanl.gov