A simulation model for HIV transmission and diagnosis-based control strategies

Two models were constructed for sexually-transmitted HIV between healthy and infected patients in a mixed population, i.e. no discrimination was made between age, gender or sexual orientation. The first model had no control and considered three populations according to their infection status; the first concerned the average number of susceptible individuals, the second the average number of undiagnosed HIV infected people and the third was concerned with the average number of undiagnosed infected patients (assuming that susceptible people might acquire HIV from diagnosed and undiagnosed infected patients). The second model included control through diagnosis; it considered two additional populations: the average number of diagnosed healthy carriers and diagnosed HIV infected carriers. This was aimed at studying whether the disease can be controlled by diagnosis only. It was also assumed that, despite diagnosis, susceptible people may acquire HIV from both diagnosed and undiagnosed infected patients. It was noted that numerical simulation provided sufficient evidence for determining that the best diagnostic strategy (i.e. having 100 % effectiveness) was not effective enough to significantly reduce HIV transmission.