Weakening connections in heterogeneous mean-field models

Abstract: Two versions of the susceptible-infected-susceptible epidemic model, which have different transmission rules, are analysed. Both models are considered on a weighted network to simulate a mitigation in the connection between the individuals. The analysis is performed through a heterogeneous mean-field approach on a scale-free network. For a suitable choice of the parameters, both models exhibit a positive infection threshold, when they share the same critical exponents associated with the behaviour of the prevalence against the infection rate. Nevertheless, when the infection threshold vanishes, the prevalence of these models display different algebraic decays to zero for low values of the infection rate.