Bayesian Inference of Spreading Processes on Networks

TL;DR

This paper presents a Bayesian inference method using approximate Bayesian computation to estimate epidemic parameters and sources on networks, applicable to various network types and complex spreading processes.

Contribution

It introduces a network-agnostic Bayesian inference framework for epidemic source detection and parameter estimation using ABC, effective on heterogeneous networks.

Findings

Method performs well on synthetic and real networks.

Inference is easier on heterogeneous network topologies.

Approach is agnostic to network structure and spreading process.

Abstract

Infectious diseases are studied to understand their spreading mechanisms, to evaluate control strategies and to predict the risk and course of future outbreaks. Because people only interact with a small number of individuals, and because the structure of these interactions matters for spreading processes, the pairwise relationships between individuals in a population can be usefully represented by a network. Although the underlying processes of transmission are different, the network approach can be used to study the spread of pathogens in a contact network or the spread of rumors in an online social network. We study simulated simple and complex epidemics on synthetic networks and on two empirical networks, a social / contact network in an Indian village and an online social network in the U.S. Our goal is to learn simultaneously about the spreading process parameters and the source node (first infected node) of the epidemic, given a fixed and known network structure, and observations about state of nodes at several points in time. Our inference scheme is based on approximate Bayesian computation (ABC), an inference technique for complex models with likelihood functions that are either expensive to evaluate or analytically intractable. ABC enables us to adopt a Bayesian approach to the problem despite the posterior distribution being very complex. Our method is agnostic about the topology of the network and the nature of the spreading process. It generally performs well and, somewhat counter-intuitively, the inference problem appears to be easier on more heterogeneous network topologies, which enhances its future applicability to real-world settings where few networks have homogeneous topologies.