Heterogeneous edge weights promote epidemic diffusion in weighted evolving networks

Abstract

The impact that the heterogeneities of links’ weights have on epidemic diffusion in weighted networks has received much attention. Investigating how heterogeneous edge weights affect epidemic spread is helpful for disease control. In this paper, we study a Reed–Frost epidemic model in weighted evolving networks. Our results indicate that a higher heterogeneity of edge weights leads to higher epidemic prevalence and epidemic incidence at earlier stage of epidemic diffusion in weighted evolving networks. In addition, weighted evolving scale-free networks come with a higher epidemic prevalence and epidemic incidence than unweighted scale-free networks.