Mathematical and computational approaches to epidemic modeling: a comprehensive review.

Mathematical and computational approaches are important tools for understanding epidemic spread patterns and evaluating policies of disease control. In recent years, epidemiology has become increasingly integrated with mathematics, sociology, management science, complexity science, and computer science. The cross of multiple disciplines has caused rapid development of mathematical and computational approaches to epidemic modeling. In this article, we carry out a comprehensive review of epidemic models to provide an insight into the literature of epidemic modeling and simulation. We introduce major epidemic models in three directions, including mathematical models, complex network models, and agent-based models. We discuss the principles, applications, advantages, and limitations of these models. Meanwhile, we also propose some future research directions in epidemic modeling. © Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014.