Epidemic spreading in complex networks

Abstract

Human history is accompanied by all kinds of epidemic diseases. Yet, the research progress in epidemic spreading is unexpectedly slow. In the last few decades, by applying the theory of complex networks, the study on epidemic spreading has obtained great success. In this review, we briefly introduce the important progresses on epidemic spreading in complex networks. We mainly focus on the following four aspects: (1) epidemic spreading based on contact network model; (2) epidemic spreading based on meta-population model; (3) the prediction of epidemic spreading; (4) the control of epidemic spreading. These achievements make us deeply understand the epidemic spreading in the real world, and make it possible for us to predict and control the real epidemics.