Dynamic Curing and Network Design in SIS Epidemic Processes

This paper studies efficient algorithms for dynamic curing policies and the corresponding network design problems to guarantee fast extinction of epidemic spread in a Markov process-based susceptible-infected-susceptible (SIS) model. We provide a computationally efficient curing algorithm based on the curing policy proposed by Drakopoulos, Ozdaglar, and Tsitsiklis (2014). Since the corresponding optimization problem is NP-hard, finding optimal policies is intractable for large graphs. We provide approximation guarantees on the curing budget of the proposed dynamic curing algorithm. To avoid the waiting period included in the original curing policy, we study network design problems to reduce the total infection rate by deleting edges or reducing the weight of edges. To this end, we provide algorithms with provable guarantees. In summary, the proposed curing and network design algorithms together provide an effective and computationally efficient approach that mitigates SIS epidemic spread in networks.