Heterosexual HIV transmission and STD prevalence: predictions of a theoretical model.

Abstract

Background: Previous studies suggest that concurrent sexually transmitted infection may enhance HIV transmission. This paper explores some theoretical consequences of this using a mathematical model of transmission of HIV and other STD pathogens. Objectives: To develop a deterministic mathematical model to describe the heterosexual transmission dynamics of both HIV and a bacterial STD. Study design: We used survey derived estimates of sexual behaviour in a young heterosexual London population in our deterministic mathematical model to estimate the eVects on an HIV epidemic of diVerent levels of STD prevalence in such a population. Results: We show that the predictions of the model are plausible and suggest that, even under conditions both of low STD prevalence and of low HIV transmission enhancement, a substantial proportion of HIV transmission events may be attributable to concurrent STD. Conclusions: It is likely that epidemics of heterosexually transmitted HIV infection in industrialised countries have been limited in size by the relative success of eVorts to control STD. None the less, a significant proportion of heterosexual transmission events which do occur may be attributable to concurrent STD. In developing countries, cheap and simple STD care is likely to be a highly cost eVective strategy to prevent HIV transmission. (Sex Transm Inf 1998;74:339-344)

Prevalence of and risk indicators for STIs among women seeking induced abortions in two urban family planning clinics in Shandong province, People's Republic of China

“…One is that most women infected are often asymptomatic or only have mild symptoms. [20][21][22] If we use elicited symptoms as a starting point in the management of our clients, a large proportion of infected women would be missed. For example, out of 96 women with chlamydial infection detected, only 15 cases were elicited with genital pruritus, 12 with abnormal vaginal discharge, and seven with lower abdominal pain.…”

The Prevalence of Sexually Transmitted Infections in Papua New Guinea: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…These infections indicate the presence of HIV-related risk behaviour, as well as biologically enhancing the transmission and acquisition of HIV itself [12] , [13] , [14] , [15] , [16] , [17] , [18] , [19] . Their effective management may play an important role in HIV prevention [20] , [21] , [22] , [23] , [24] . Like many countries, PNG could benefit from better information on the extent of STIs to inform prevention and control strategies.…”

Online Promiscuity: Prophylactic Patching and the Spread of Computer Transmitted Infections

“…We build off of Perra et al's work to create a two population model with a social response that represents the ability of users to change behavior, and thus, their population group. This differentiates our model from more complicated models of STIs that use different characteristics of infection for individual population groups, but do not include behavioral responses to infection [11,34,37,6]. …”