Can rewiring strategy control the epidemic spreading?

•A novel epidemic spreading model in weighted adaptive network is proposed.•The relation intimacy among individuals is considered in rewiring strategy.•The effect of the modified rewiring strategy is evaluated.•As well as strong links, weak links play an important role in the epidemic spreading.

Relation existed in the social contact network can affect individuals’ behaviors greatly. Considering the diversity of relation intimacy among network nodes, an epidemic propagation model is proposed by incorporating the link-breaking threshold, which is normally neglected in the rewiring strategy. The impact of rewiring strategy on the epidemic spreading in the weighted adaptive network is explored. The results show that the rewiring strategy cannot always control the epidemic prevalence, especially when the link-breaking threshold is low. Meanwhile, as well as strong links, weak links also play a significant role on epidemic spreading.