Modelling the spread of sexually transmitted diseases on scale-free networks

In this paper a new model for the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) is presented. The dynamic behaviors of the model on a heterogenous scale-free (SF) network are considered, where the absence of a threshold on the SF network is demonstrated, and the stability of the disease-free equilibrium is obtained. Three immunization strategies, uniform immunization, proportional immunization and targeted immunization, are applied in this model. Analytical and simulated results are given to show that the proportional immunization strategy in the model is effective on SF networks.