Epidemic spreading on weighted contact networks

The study of epidemics is a crucial issue to several areas. An epidemic can have devastating economic and social consequences. A single crop disease in Kansas could destroy the yearly income of many farmers. Previous work using graph theory has determined a universal epidemic threshold found in the graph topology for a binary contact network in the compartmental susceptible-infected (SI) analysis. We expand this threshold to a more realistic measure. A binary uniform level of contact within a society is too idealistic and an improved threshold is found in allowing a spectrum of contact within a contact network. The expanded contact network also allows for asymmetric contact such as a mother caring for her child. Further study in this area should lead to improved simulators, disease modeling, policies and control of infectious diseases and viruses.