An infectious disease outbreak simulator based on the cellular Automata paradigm

Abstract

In this paper, we propose the use of Cellular Automata paradigm to simulate an infectious disease outbreak. The simulator facilitates the study of dynamics of epidemics of different infectious diseases, and has been applied to study the effects of spread vaccination and ring vaccination strategies. Fundamentally the simulator loosely simulates SIR (Susceptible Infected Removed) and SEIR (Susceptible Exposed Infected Removed). The Geo-spatial model with global interaction and our approach of global stochastic cellular automata are also discussed. The global stochastic cellular automata takes into account the demography, culture of a region. The simulator can be used to study the dynamics of disease epidemics over large geographic regions. We analyze the effects of distances and interaction on the spread of various diseases. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.