Bursting endemic bubbles in an adaptive network

Abstract

The spread of an infectious disease is known to change people's behavior, which in turn affects the spread of disease. Adaptive network models that account for both epidemic and behavior change have found oscillations, but in an extremely narrow region of the parameter space, which contrasts with intuition and available data. In this paper we propose a simple SIS epidemic model on an adaptive network with time-delayed rewiring, and show that oscillatory solutions are now present in a wide region of the parameter space. Altering the transmission or rewiring rates reveals the presence of an endemic bubble - an enclosed region of the parameter space where oscillations are observed.