Epidemic dynamics on scale-free networks with piecewise linear infectivity and immunization

We examine epidemic thresholds for disease spread using susceptible-infected-susceptible models on scale-free networks with variable infectivity. Infectivity between nodes is modeled as a piecewise linear function of the node degree (rather than the less realistic linear transformation considered previously). With this nonlinear infectivity, we derive conditions for the epidemic threshold to be positive. The effects of various immunization schemes including ring and targeted vaccination are studied and compared. We find that both targeted and ring immunization strategies compare favorably to a proportional scheme in terms of effectiveness.