  The isolation of infectious individuals is a key measure of public health for
the control of communicable diseases. However, involving a strong perturbation
of daily life, it often causes psychosocial distress, and severe financial and
social costs. These may act as mechanisms limiting the adoption of the measure
in the first place or the adherence throughout its full duration. In addition,
difficulty of recognizing mild symptoms or lack of symptoms may impact
awareness of the infection and further limit adoption. Here, we study an
epidemic model on a network of contacts accounting for limited adherence and
delayed awareness to self-isolation, along with fatigue causing overhasty
termination. The model allows us to estimate the role of each ingredient and
analyze the tradeoff between adherence and duration of self-isolation. We find
that the epidemic threshold is very sensitive to an effective compliance that
combines the effects of imperfect adherence, delayed awareness and fatigue. If
adherence improves for shorter quarantine periods, there exists an optimal
duration of isolation, shorter than the infectious period. However,
heterogeneities in the connectivity pattern, coupled to a reduced compliance
for highly active individuals, may almost completely offset the effectiveness
of self-isolation measures on the control of the epidemic.
