Effect of mobility in the dynamics of SI epidemic in a 2D lattice

Abstract

With the prevalent spread of epidemics in our world today, studies on infectious diseases are essential in knowing how to mitigate and control outbreaks as to minimize the damage they cause. Especially because advances in technology allow easier transport of hosts, a clear understanding of its spatial dynamics helps address important issues and policies that will stop or delay diseases to spread to a population. Compartmental models have been the basis of most epidemiological models. However, this assumes homogenous mixing among individuals, wherein the whole population has an equal probability to be infected by a disease. Here, we study the effect of spatial constrains by using a cellular automata model to mimic a system of agents on a two-dimensional space with static agents. The density is used a parameter for the connectivity of agents in the population. We also look at mobile agents to observe the effects of movement, global and local, on the dynamics of epidemic spread, in studying the effect of jumps in connectivity.