Epidemic spreading in a variety of scale free networks

Volchenkov D, Volchenkova L, Blanchard P. Epidemic spreading in a variety of scale free networks. PHYSICAL REVIEW E. 2002;66(4):6137-6146.We have shown that the epidemic spreading in scale-free networks is very sensitive to the statistics of degree distribution characterized by the index gamma, the effective spreading rate lambda, the social strategy used by individuals to choose a partner, and the policy of administrating a cure to an infected node. Depending on the interplay of these four factors, the stationary fractions of infected population F-gamma as well as the epidemic threshold properties can be essentially different. We have given an example of the evolutionary scale-free network which is disposed to the spreading and the persistence of infections at any spreading rate lambda>0 for any gamma. Probably, it is impossible to obtain a simple immunization program that can be simultaneously effective for all types of scale-free networks. We have also studied the dynamical solutions for the evolution equation governed by the epidemic spreading in scale-free networks and found that for the case of vanishingly small cure rate delta<