Modeling Epidemics with Dynamic Small‐World Networks

In this presentation a minimal model for describing the spreading of an infectious disease, such as influenza, is discussed. Here it is assumed that spreading takes place on a dynamic small‐world network comprising short‐ and long‐range infection events. Approximate equations for the epidemic threshold as well as the spreading dynamics are derived and they agree well with numerical discrete time‐step simulations. Also the dependence of the epidemic saturation time on the initial conditions is analysed and a comparison with real‐world data is made.