Modular Epidemic Spreading in Small-World Networks

We study the epidemic spreading of the susceptible-infected-susceptible model on small-world networks with modular structure. It is found that the epidemic threshold increases linearly with the modular strength. Furthermore, the modular structure may influence the infected density in the steady state and the spreading velocity at the beginning of propagation. Practically, the propagation can be hindered by strengthening the modular structure in the view of network topology. In addition, to reduce the probability of econnection between modules may also help to control the propagation.