Using active matter to introduce spatial heterogeneity to the susceptible infected recovered model of epidemic spreading.

ABSTRACT: The widely used susceptible-infected-recovered (S-I-R) epidemic model assumes a uniform, well-mixed population, and incorporation of spatial heterogeneities remains a major challenge. Understanding failures of the mixing assumption is important for designing effective disease mitigation approaches. We combine a run-and-tumble self-propelled active matter system with an S-I-R model to capture the effects of spatial disorder. Working in the motility-induced phase separation regime both with and without quenched disorder, we find two epidemic regimes. For low transmissibility, quenched disorder lowers the frequency of epidemics and increases their average duration. For high transmissibility, the epidemic spreads as a front and the epidemic curves are less sensitive to quenched disorder; howev

SUBMITTER: Forgacs P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9253087 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature