Vaccination Campaigns on Random and Scale-Free Networks

The spreading of person-to-person infectious diseases (such as influenza) depends significantly on the contact network of the community. Any successful vaccination plan demands a complete understanding of how the disease can possibly propagate on this network. For this purpose, we examined vaccination actions on two specific community networks: scale-free networks and random networks. We applied a “random” vaccination plan and a “strategic” vaccination plan on both networks. The former corresponds to vaccine interventions regardless of the community structure, while the latter corresponds to preferential interventions according to the individual’s degree of connectivity. The “random” vaccination shows to be capable of reducing the infection peak, but the overall performance varies significantly if applied on a scale-free or random network. The “strategic” plan, on the contrary, prioritized vaccination actions on highly connected individuals. It showed more effective results since it slowed down the disease propagation while providing more time for immunization. We further applied the “strategic” plan to families instead of individuals alone. The plan appeared to perform nicely but not as effectively as vaccinating highly connected individuals.