Impact of media coverage on epidemic spreading in complex networks

Wang, Yi; Cao, Jinde; Jin, Zhen; Zhang, Haifeng; Sun, Gui-Quan

Abstract An SIS network model incorporating the influence of media coverage on transmission rate is formulated and analyzed. We calculate the basic reproduction number R 0 by utilizing the local stability of the disease-free equilibrium. Our results show that the disease-free equilibrium is globally asymptotically stable and that the disease dies out if R 0 is below 1; otherwise, the disease will persist and converge to a unique positive stationary state. This result may suggest effective control strategies to prevent disease through media coverage and education activities in finite-size scale-free networks. Numerical simulations are also performed to illustrate our results and to give more insights into the dynamical process.