Exploring the Impact of Prostitution on HIV/AIDS Transmission

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Abstract

HIV/AIDS has been somehow linked to prostitution for decades now. A mathematical model is presented to assess the link between prostitution and HIV transmission. The epidemic thresholds known as the reproduction numbers and equilibria for the model are determined and stabilities analyzed. Analysis of the reproduction numbers suggests that HIV/AIDS control using antiretroviral therapy is more effective in the absence of prostitution. Numerical simulations further show high levels of HIV/AIDS when percentage of prostitutes in the community is high. Results from this study suggest that effectively controlling HIV/AIDS requires strategies that address both prostitution and HIV/AIDS transmission. Addressing HIV/AIDS through condom use and antiretroviral therapy may not be enough to stem HIV/AIDS in the community as some drug/alcohol misusing prostitutes may not be able to negotiate for safe sex while they are in drunken stupor. Furthermore, prostitutes are likely to get infected by different HIV strains some of which may be resistant to the antiretroviral therapy regimen in use.

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Most cited references 22

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Nonnegative Matrices in the Mathematical Sciences

Abraham Berman, Robert J. Plemmons (1994)

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The Failure of R0

Jing. Li, Daniel Blakeley, Robert Smith? (2011)

The basic reproductive ratio, R 0, is one of the fundamental concepts in mathematical biology. It is a threshold parameter, intended to quantify the spread of disease by estimating the average number of secondary infections in a wholly susceptible population, giving an indication of the invasion strength of an epidemic: if R 0 1, the disease persists. R 0 has been widely used as a measure of disease strength to estimate the effectiveness of control measures and to form the backbone of disease-management policy. However, in almost every aspect that matters, R 0 is flawed. Diseases can persist with R 0 1 can die out. We show that the same model of malaria gives many different values of R 0, depending on the method used, with the sole common property that they have a threshold at 1. We also survey estimated values of R 0 for a variety of diseases, and examine some of the alternatives that have been proposed. If R 0 is to be used, it must be accompanied by caveats about the method of calculation, underlying model assumptions and evidence that it is actually a threshold. Otherwise, the concept is meaningless.

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Decline in HIV infectivity following the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy.

K Shafer, Robert M Grant, Dennis Osmond … (2004)

Little is known about the degree to which widespread use of antiretroviral therapy in a community reduces uninfected individuals' risk of acquiring HIV. We estimated the degree to which the probability of HIV infection from an infected partner (the infectivity) declined following the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in San Francisco. Homosexual men from the San Francisco Young Men's Health Study, who were initially uninfected with HIV, were asked about sexual practices, and tested for HIV antibodies at each of four follow-up visits during a 6-year period spanning the advent of widespread use of HAART (1994-1999). We estimated the infectivity of HIV (per-partnership probability of transmission from an infected partner) using a probabilistic risk model based on observed incident infections and self-reported sexual risk behavior, and tested the hypothesis that infectivity was the same before and after HAART was introduced. A total of 534 homosexual men were evaluated. Decreasing trends in HIV seroincidence were observed despite increases in reported number of unprotected receptive anal intercourse partners. Conservatively assuming a constant prevalence of HIV infection between 1994 and 1999, HIV infectivity decreased from 0.120 prior to widespread use of HAART, to 0.048 after the widespread use of HAART- a decline of 60% (P=0.028). Use of HAART by infected persons in a community appears to reduce their infectiousness and therefore may provide an important HIV prevention tool.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Int Sch Res Notices

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Int Sch Res Notices

Journal ID (publisher-id): ISRN

Title: International Scholarly Research Notices

Publisher: Hindawi Publishing Corporation

ISSN (Electronic): 2356-7872

Publication date Collection: 2014

Publication date (Electronic): 30 October 2014

Volume: 2014

Electronic Location Identifier: 651025

Affiliations

Department of Mathematics, University of Zimbabwe, P.O. Box MP 167, Harare, Zimbabwe

Author notes

*C. P. Bhunu: cpbhunu@ 123456gmail.com

Academic Editor: Lida Zhang

Article

DOI: 10.1155/2014/651025

PMC ID: 4897385

PubMed ID: 27471746

SO-VID: 4e6e7a92-f0d4-4281-a8ab-95a08b5f9836

License:

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

History

Date received : 24 July 2014

Date revision received : 19 September 2014

Date accepted : 20 September 2014

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