The effect of density-dependent treatment and behavior change on the dynamics of HIV transmission

In this work, we propose a model for heterosexual transmission of HIV/AIDS in a population of varying size with an intervention program in which treatment and/or behavior change of the infecteds occur as an increasing function of the density of the infected class in the population. This assumption has socio-economic implications which is important for public health considerations since density-dependent treatment/behavior change may be more cost-saving than a program where treatment/behavior change occurs linearly with respect to the number of infecteds. We will make use of the conservation law of total sexual contacts which enables us to reduce the two-sex model to a simpler one-sex formulation. Analytical results will be given. Unlike a similar model with linear treatment/behavior change in Hsieh (1996) where conditions were obtained for the eradication of disease, we will show that density-dependent treatment/behavior change cannot eradicate the disease if the disease is able to persist without any treatment/behavior change. This work demonstrates the need to further understand how treatment/behavior change occurs in a society with varying population.

Authors and Affiliations

1. Department of Applied Mathematics, National Chung-Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan 402. e-mail: yhhsieh@dragon.nchu.edu.tw, , , , , , TW

   Ying-Hen Hsieh & Shin-Pyng Sheu

Received 14 April 1996 / Revised version: 24 October 2000 /¶Published online: 18 June 2001

Reprints and permissions