Modeling an Epidemic in a Population with Complex Contact Network

Introduction

Being healthy is one of the big concerns of each individual, but that has been influenced not only by individual health and life style but also by population health. The spreading and dynamics of a disease within a population is the subject of many studies. A standard model in epidemiology is the SIR model, in which individuals are classified in three components (Susceptible, Infected, Recovered). Commonly, the contact among individuals and the disease transmission rate is considered the same during the epidemic. Contact network and disease transmission play an important role to model the system in order to estimate the time of disease outbreak, basic reproductive ratio of the disease virus, etc. These two concepts are important for applying preventive care such as vaccination, and closing schools. What preventive methods do is changing the connectivity or transmission rates over time.