Modelling HIV/AIDS in the presence of an HIV testing and screening campaign

F. Nyabadza, Z. Mukandavire

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

26 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Preventing and managing the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa will dominate the next decade and beyond. Reduction of new HIV infections by implementing a comprehensive national HIV prevention programme at a sufficient scale to have real impact remains a priority. In this paper, a deterministic HIV/AIDS model that incorporates condom use, screening through HIV counseling and testing (HCT), regular testing and treatment as control strategies is proposed with the objective of quantifying the effectiveness of HCT in preventing new infections and predicting the long-term dynamics of the epidemic. It is found that a backward bifurcation occurs if the rate of screening is below a certain threshold, suggesting that the classical requirement for the basic reproduction number to be below unity though necessary, is not sufficient for disease control in this case. The global stabilities of the equilibria under certain conditions are determined in terms of the model reproduction number R0. Numerical simulations are performed and the model is fitted to data on HIV prevalence in South Africa. The effects of changes in some key epidemiological parameters are investigated. Projections are made to predict the long-term dynamics of the disease. The epidemiological implications of such projections on public health planning and management are discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)167-179
Number of pages13
JournalJournal of Theoretical Biology
Volume280
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 7 Jul 2011
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Backward bifurcation
  • HIV counseling and testing
  • Reproduction number
  • Screening
  • Simulations

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Statistics and Probability
  • Modeling and Simulation
  • General Biochemistry,Genetics and Molecular Biology
  • General Immunology and Microbiology
  • General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
  • Applied Mathematics

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