Critical value in a SIR network model with heterogeneous infectiousness and susceptibility.

Using the technique of edge-based compartmental modelling (EBCM) for the spread of susceptible-infected-recovered (SIR) diseases in networks, in a recent paper (PloS One, 8(2013), e69162), Miller and Volz established an SIR disease network model with heterogeneous infectiousness and susceptibility. The authors provided a numerical example to demonstrate its validity but they did not perform any mathematical analysis of the model. In this paper, we resolve this problem.