  We investigate a cyclic game system where organisms face an epidemic beyond
being threatened by natural enemies. As a survival strategy, individuals of one
out of the species usually safeguard themselves by approaching the enemies of
their enemies and performing social distancing to escape contamination when an
outbreak affects the neighbourhood. We simulate how the survival movement
strategy to local epidemic surges must adapt if a pathogen mutation makes the
disease deadlier. We study the spatial distribution of local outbreaks and
observe the influence of disease mortality on individuals' spatial
organisation. We show that adapting the survival movement strategy for a high
mortality disease demands an altruistic behaviour of the organisms since their
death risk increases. Despite weakening the disease transmission chain, which
benefits the species, abandoning refuges provided by safeguarding social
interaction increases the vulnerability to being eliminated in the cyclic game.
Considering that not all individuals exhibit altruism, we find the relative
growth in the species density as a function of the proportion of individuals
behaving altruistically. Our results may be helpful for biologists and data
scientists to understand how adaptive altruistic processes can affect
population dynamics in complex systems.
