Perspective on the spatio-temporal spread of epidemics in metapopulation networks

- We review the recent progress of epidemic dynamics in metapopulation networks. Firstly, we give an introduction of the concepts about epidemic models and metapopulation net-work. Then, the theoretical characterization of epidemics spread in metapopulation networks is summed up. The measures of how to curb the spread of epidemics are summarized. The appli-cations of inferring epidemic pathways based on epidemic data and reconstruction of epidemic transmission by phylogeographic are introduced. Finally, we present the outlooks about further research of epidemic dynamics on metapopulation networks.