The Role of Geographic Spreaders in Infectious Pattern Formation and Front Propagation Speeds

TL;DR

This paper investigates how geographic spreaders influence the spatial patterns and front propagation speeds of infectious diseases using a kernel-based SIR model, revealing how mobility and spatial parameters shape epidemic spread.

Contribution

It introduces a scaling law for maximum front speed considering geographic spreaders and analyzes how mobility variance affects spatial infection patterns.

Findings

Maximum front speed scales with (1-φ)γ(R₀-1)σ.

Small φ has limited impact on front speed but delays its attainment.

Long-distance mobility leads to coherent spatial infection patterns.

Abstract

The pattern formation and spatial spread of infectious populations are investigated using a kernel-based Susceptible-Infectious-Recovered (SIR) model applicable across a wide range of basic reproduction numbers $R_o$. The focus is on the role of geographic spreaders defined here as a portion of the infected population ($\phi$) experiencing high mobility between identical communities. The spatial organization of the infected population and invasive front speeds ($c_{max}$) are determined when the infections are randomly initiated in space within multiple communities. For small but finite $\phi$, scaling analysis in 1-dimension and simulation results in 2-dimensions suggest that $c_{max}\sim (1-\phi) \gamma (R_o-1) \sigma$, where $\gamma$ is the inverse of the infectious duration, and $\sigma^2$ is the variance of the spatial kernel describing mobility of long-distance spreaders across communities. Hence, $c_{max}$ is not significantly affected by the small $\phi$ though reductions in $\phi$ act as retardation factors to the attainment of $c_{max}$. The $\sigma$ determines the spatial organization of infections across communities. When $\sigma >5dr$ (long-distance mobility, where $dr$ is the minimum spatial extent defining adjacent communities), the infectious population will experience a transient but spatially coherent pattern with a wavelength that can be derived from the spreading kernel properties.