7. Discussion




An outbreak of zombies infecting humans is likely to be disastrous, unless extremely aggressive


tactics are employed against the undead. While aggressive quarantine may eradicate


the infection, this is unlikely to happen in practice. A cure would only result in some


humans surviving the outbreak, although they will still coexist with zombies. Only sufficiently


frequent attacks, with increasing force, will result in eradication, assuming the


available resources can be mustered in time.




Furthermore, these results assumed that the timescale of the outbreak was short, so that


the natural birth and death rates could be ignored. If the timescale of the outbreak increases,


then the result is the doomsday scenario: an outbreak of zombies will result in the collapse


of civilisation, with every human infected, or dead. This is because human births and


deaths will provide the undead with a limitless supply of new bodies to infect, resurrect


and convert. Thus, if zombies arrive, we must act quickly and decisively to eradicate them


before they eradicate us.




The key difference between the models presented here and other models of infectious


disease is that the dead can come back to life. Clearly, this is an unlikely scenario if taken


literally, but possible real-life applications may include allegiance to political parties, or


diseases with a dormant infection.




This is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the first mathematical analysis of an outbreak of zombie


infection. While the scenarios considered are obviously not realistic, it is nevertheless


instructive to develop mathematical models for an unusual outbreak. This demonstrates


the flexibility of mathematical modelling and shows how modelling can respond to a wide


variety of challenges in ‘biology’.




In summary, a zombie outbreak is likely to lead to the collapse of civilisation, unless it


is dealt with quickly. While aggressive quarantine may contain the epidemic, or a cure may


lead to coexistence of humans and zombies, the most effective way to contain the rise of


the undead is to hit hard and hit often. As seen in the movies, it is imperative that zombies


are dealt with quickly, or else we are all in a great deal of trouble.

Clearly, this is an unlikely scenario if taken
literally, but possible real-life applications may include allegiance to political parties, or
diseases with a dormant infection.