2134/8864
Frank Ball
Frank
Ball
David Sirl
David
Sirl
Pieter Trapman
Pieter
Trapman
Threshold behaviour and final outcome of an epidemic on a random network with household structure
Loughborough University
2011
Branching process
Final outcome
Coupling
Epidemic process
Households
Local and global contacts
Random graph
Susceptibility set
Threshold theorem
2011-09-28 10:53:31
Journal contribution
https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/journal_contribution/Threshold_behaviour_and_final_outcome_of_an_epidemic_on_a_random_network_with_household_structure/9368711
In this paper we consider a stochastic SIR (susceptible→infective→removed) epidemic model in which individuals may make infectious contacts in two ways, both within `households' (which for ease of exposition are assumed to have equal size) and along the edges of a random graph describing additional social contacts. Heuristically motivated branching process approximations are described, which lead to a threshold parameter for the model and methods for calculating the probability of a major outbreak, given few initial infectives, and the expected proportion of the population who are ultimately infected by such a major outbreak. These approximate results are shown to be exact as the number of households tends to infinity by proving associated limit theorems. Moreover, simulation studies indicate that these asymptotic results provide good approximations for modestly sized finite populations. The extension to unequal-sized households is discussed briefly.