Abstract:
Infectious diseases are those that can be transmitted
from person to person upon some form of contact. In this regard,
airborne infectious diseases can wreak quite a havoc as they
have a high degree of infectiousness and can easily infect a
healthy person who comes in proximity of an infected person
for a specific interval of time. The situation can take the form
of an epidemic in no time if the outbreak of a disease is not
checked at an earlier stage. In this paper, we simulate the spread
of airborne infectious disease in the city population. Disease
transmission from an infected person to a healthy person is
modeled based on proximity and contact time. We analyze how
population density affects the spread of disease. Moreover, we
also analyze how practices like wearing a mask and hotspot
lockdowns might slow down the spread of infection. Finally, we
analyze how an epidemic mitigates when a certain fraction of
the population becomes immune to the disease. Observations
and inferences drawn from the simulation results can help make
policies to tackle the spread of airborne infectious disease in a
city community.
