  In this paper, we study the interplay between the epidemic spreading and the
diffusion of awareness in multiplex networks. In the model, an infectious
disease can spread in one network representing the paths of epidemic spreading
(contact network), leading to the diffusion of awareness in the other network
(information network), and then the diffusion of awareness will cause
individuals to take social distances, which in turn affects the epidemic
spreading. As for the diffusion of awareness, we assume that, on the one hand,
individuals can be informed by other aware neighbors in information network, on
the other hand, the susceptible individuals can be self-awareness induced by
the infected neighbors in the contact networks (local information) or mass
media (global information). Through Markov chain approach and numerical
computations, we find that the density of infected individuals and the epidemic
threshold can be affected by the structures of the two networks and the
effective transmission rate of the awareness. However, we prove that though the
introduction of the self-awareness can lower the density of infection, which
cannot increase the epidemic threshold no matter of the local information or
global information. Our finding is remarkably different to many previous
results--local information based behavioral response can alter the epidemic
threshold.
