Long-Distance Travel Behaviours Accelerate and Aggravate the Large-Scale Spatial Spreading of Infectious Diseases
Figure 1
Schematic of metapopulation system. (a) A metapopulation system with several relatively isolated populations. These populations are synchronised by individual flows to some degree but not fully. At the beginning of the simulation, the epidemic outbreaks in population , while other populations stay susceptible. (b) A long-distance traveller travels from to , and at the same time, another long-distance traveller travels from to . Thus individuals in are exposed to the risk of infection. With no MEs, every infective in leads to equivalent risk to . (c) The population structure in . Individuals are organised into groups and these groups may be overlapped. The long-distance traveller stays in group when visiting . In this case, is more likely to be infected by 2 than by other infectives. And owing to the higher transmission rate within the groups, will suffer from a higher risk. (d) The population structure in . stays in group when visiting and susceptibles in are more likely to be infected compared to other susceptibles in . The higher risk could then be transferred to group through . This process is repeated and thus accelerates the spreading of infectious diseases.
