Cooperative epidemics spreading under resource control

Area of Science:

• Epidemiology
• Network Science
• Mathematical Biology

Background:

• Public resource input and allocation are critical for infectious disease outbreak suppression.
• Previous multi-disease dynamics research has largely overlooked the impact of resource management.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and analyze a two-epidemic spreading model incorporating resource control.
• To investigate how resource allocation strategies affect disease dynamics and outcomes.

Main Methods:

• Developed a two-epidemic spreading model with resource-dependent recovery rates.
• Introduced a parameter to regulate resource allocation between the two diseases.
• Employed the dynamical message passing method for analysis.
• Validated findings on Erdős-Rényi (ER) and scale-free networks.

Main Results:

• Identified resource thresholds for both diseases.
• Demonstrated that network heterogeneity promotes the spread of both diseases.
• Found optimal resource allocation coefficients across different resource levels.
• Observed that preferential suppression of the lower-infection-rate disease is optimal under limited resources.
• Determined that strong inter-disease interaction homogenizes disease infectivity.

Conclusions:

• Resource management significantly impacts multi-disease dynamics, offering novel control strategies.
• Network structure, particularly heterogeneity, plays a crucial role in disease propagation.
• Optimal resource allocation strategies are resource-dependent and can be counterintuitive, highlighting the need for tailored interventions.