Efficient Vaccination Strategies in a Social Network with Individual Mobility

Vaccination is a primary means used to control infectious diseases. Various epidemic models have been developed to find efficient vaccination strategies. However, few models and vaccination strategies have explicitly taken individual mobility into consideration. New models and vaccination strategies are needed for today’s highly mobile society. This paper presents an individual-based epidemic model that allows individuals to travel between communities. Based on such a model, three vaccination strategies are investigated, including the travel-based, contact-based, and random vaccination strategies. The simulation results show that intercommunity travel would be a major consideration for designing vaccination strategy. The contact-based vaccination strategy is preferable in a population with a large number of intercommunity travelers, for instance the metropolitan areas. The travel-based vaccination strategy is preferable in a population with a small number of inter-community travelers, such as the rural areas. From a spatial perspective, the travel-based vaccination strategy efficiently confines the spatial spread of diseases, thus minimizing affected areas. This research provides useful insights into the community-based planning for infectious disease control.