  By convention, and even more often, as an unintentional consequence of
design, time distributions of latency and infectious durations in stochastic
epidemic simulations are often exponential. The skewed distribtion typically
leads to unrealistically short times. We examine the effects of altering the
distribution latency and infectious times by comparing the key results after
simulation with exponential and gamma distributions in a homogeneous mixing
model aswell as a model with regional divisions connected by a travel intensity
matrix. We show a delay in spread with more realistic latency times and offer
an explanation of the effect.
