Temporal network structure and its implications for disease spreading and control


Petter Holme (Umea Univ., Sweden & SKKU)

Contacts between individuals form the infrastructure over which diseases spread. Such contact patterns are far from random -- there are correlations both in the network of who has been in contact with whom, and when these contacts happen. These structures affect the dynamics of disease spreading but can also be exploited in preventive action such as vaccination campaigns. In this talk, I will use datasets from the proximity of patients in hospitals, online dating services and Internet-mediated prostitution to discuss some methods to analyze such temporal network structures and evaluate their effects on disease spreading. I will also discuss targeted immunization protocols utilizing such structures.