Epidemic Model with Isolation in Multilayer Networks

The Susceptible-Infected-Recovered (SIR) model has successfully mimicked the propagation of such airborne diseases as influenza A (H1N1). Although the SIR model has recently been studied in a multilayer networks configuration, in almost all the research the isolation of infected individuals is disregarded. Hence we focus our study in an epidemic model in a two-layer network, and we use an isolation parameter w to measure the effect of quarantining infected individuals from both layers during an isolation period t(w). We call this process the Susceptible-Infected-Isolated-Recovered (SI(I)R) model. Using the framework of link percolation we find that isolation increases the critical epidemic threshold of the disease because the time in which infection can spread is reduced. In this scenario we find that this threshold increases with w and t(w). When the isolation period is maximum there is a critical threshold for w above which the disease never becomes an epidemic. We simulate the process and find an excellent agreement with the theoretical results.