Traditional epidemic intervention procedures, such as quarantine and other social distancing measures, involve weakening or cutting links around the infected nodes. However, these procedures are not systematic from the network point of view. A more effective intervention strategy would employ understanding the 'shape' of the infection network and applying that knowledge to efficiently tear the network apart. This can be done by targeting nodes that play important roles in the network (i.e. the 'hubs'), and the 'backbones' connecting one hub to another.