HIV Testing as an Effective Control Strategy against the Spread of AIDS among Intravenous Drug Users

• Autorzy: Lewis F. , Greenhalgh D.
• Języki publikacji: EN

Abstrakty

EN

In this article we examine the impact on the spread of HIV caused by regularly testing members of a needle sharing population for the presence of disease. We develop a model of injecting drug use which contains two classes of addicts, a class who are unaware of their infectious status and a class who are aware that they are infectious through having had an HIV test. We expect addicts in the latter class to participate in needle sharing far less frequently than other addicts. We begin the paper with a brief review and literature survey followed by the derivation of a model which includes both needle exchange and HIV testing control measures. We perform an equilibrium and stability analysis on our model and find that there is a critical threshold parameter Ro which determines the behaviour of the model. If Ro ≤ 1 then irrespective of the initial conditions of the system HIV will die out in all addicts and all needles. If R > 1 then this disease free equilibrium becomes unstable and if initially present disease will now persist indefinitely, moreover there now exists a unique endemic equilibrium solution which is locally stable. Finally we examine the effectiveness of HIV testing using two different performance measures for a variety of different behavioural parameters. We find that HIV testing can be a very effective control strategy if addicts are tested regularly and once aware of their infectious status they substantially reduce their rate of needle sharing.

• Wydawca: Polish Academy of Sciences, Committee of Automatic Control and Robotics
• Czasopismo: Archives of Control Sciences
• Rocznik: 1999
• Tom: Vol. 9, no. 1/2
• Strony: 69--96
• Opis fizyczny: Bibliogr. poz. 19, rys. tab.

Twórcy

autor

Lewis F.

autor

Greenhalgh D.

• Department of Statistics and Modelling Science, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK