Effective epidemic control via strategic vaccine deployment: A systematic approach

Vaccination is an effective way to control infectious disease spreading and epidemic by adjusting the composite structure of susceptible, infectious and vaccinated populations. There are three factors related to vaccine deployment arrangements; they are: (1) total amount of vaccine, (2) vaccine releasing time, and (3) vaccine distribution method. Yet the impact of these factors still remains to be systematically understood. In our study, we further develop a modified compartmental model that incorporates five age grouped populations and a survey-based contact matrix. We study this model with current H1N1 influenza parameters. The developed infection equations for each age community enable us to simulate both within- and between-group epidemic transmission dynamics. By simulating the infection dynamics under different vaccine deployment schedules, we discuss the impact of deployment factors on epidemic spreading dynamics.