Epidemic spreading with immunization rate on complex networks

TL;DR

This paper analyzes how immunization strategies affect epidemic spreading on complex networks, especially scale-free networks, highlighting the importance of immunization rate and network directionality.

Contribution

It provides epidemic thresholds for SIR and SIS models considering imperfect and targeted immunization in directed complex networks.

Findings

Targeted immunization is effective only at full immunization rate in scale-free networks.

Epidemic thresholds are derived for directed networks, applicable also to undirected networks.

Immunization strategies significantly influence epidemic control effectiveness.

Abstract

We investigate the spread of diseases, computer viruses or information on complex networks and also immunization strategies to prevent or control the spread. When an entire population cannot be immunized and the effect of immunization is not perfect, we need the targeted immunization with immunization rate. Under such a circumstance we calculate epidemic thresholds for the SIR and SIS epidemic models. It is shown that, in scale-free networks, the targeted immunization is effective only if the immunization rate is equal to one. We analyze here epidemic spreading on directed complex networks, but similar results are also valid for undirected ones.