SIR epidemics in monogamous populations with recombination

TL;DR

This paper models the spread of an SIR epidemic in a population where individuals are paired as couples that can exchange members, analyzing how recombination affects disease transmission dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel model combining epidemic spread with dynamic couple recombination, revealing how interaction pattern evolution influences infection propagation.

Findings

Recombination rate significantly impacts epidemic spread.

Higher infectivity increases outbreak size.

Couple exchange dynamics can sustain or hinder transmission.

Abstract

We study the propagation of an SIR (susceptible-infectious-recovered) disease over an agent population which, at any instant, is fully divided into couples of agents. Couples are occasionally allowed to exchange their members. This process of couple recombination can compensate the instantaneous disconnection of the interaction pattern and thus allow for the propagation of the infection. We study the incidence of the disease as a function of its infectivity and of the recombination rate of couples, thus characterizing the interplay between the epidemic dynamics and the evolution of the population's interaction pattern.