Influence of dynamic immunization on epidemic spreading in networks

© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. We introduce a new dynamic immunization method based on the static immunization algorithm and study the relationship between dynamic and static immunization. By nodes to be immunized according to static immunization strategies, we build a connection between dynamic and static immunization. Using theoretical arguments and computational simulation we show that dynamic immunization (from a finite vaccine reservoir) is not sufficient to prevent epidemic outbreak, nor does it significantly change the asymptotic prevalence. Nonetheless, we do find that less total vaccine is required to implement this strategy. To help understand this better, we examine the extent and distribution of dynamic immunization required to achieve this reduced vaccine demand. Our results suggest that it is not necessary to increase the immunization rate when the infection rate is relatively small.