A Dynamic Network with Individual Mobility for Designing Vaccination Strategies

Abstract

AbstractVaccination is a primary means to control infectious diseases. Few studies on vaccination strategies have explicitly considered the mobility of individuals. This article aims to evaluate the efficacy of three vaccination strategies in a dynamic social network, in which individuals are mobile between and within communities. The three vaccination strategies are applied to this social network for evaluation, including a travel‐based, a contact‐based, and a random vaccination strategy. Simulation results show that the contact‐based strategy, commonly seen in previous studies, is not always the most effective strategy in dynamic networks. This strategy is preferable for a population with a large number of intercommunity travelers, for instance in urban areas. On the other hand, the travel‐based strategy, although directly accounting for individual mobility, is not necessarily the most effective in dynamic networks either. This strategy is recommended for a population with a small number of intercommunity travelers, such as rural areas. In addition, one advantage of the travel‐based strategy over the other two is its efficacy in confining the spatial extent of affected areas. Results suggest that the intercommunity travel of individuals should be a major consideration for choosing proper vaccination strategies. By adding the spatial context into vaccination strategies, this research provides new insights into community‐based planning for infectious disease control.