Modeling HIV Transmission and AIDS in the United States

This monograph describes the results of a project to use mathematical modeling and computer simulations to analyze HIV transmission dynamics and AIDS in various risk groups in the USA. Because there is more data available on homosexual men in San Francisco, this population is analyzed intensively. The risk groups considered in fifteen subregions of the USA are homosexual men, injecting drug users (IDUs), homosexual IDUs, heterosexual partners of IDUs and children of female heterosexual partners and IDUs. A goal is to understand the AIDS epidemic in the USA by using a modeling approach to analyzing the data. This monograph contains data, graphs and computer program listings. Although mathematical models are used, this book does not require a mathematical background so it is accessible to epidemiologists, modelers, mathematicians, and students who are interested in the epidemiology of AIDS or in how modeling can contribute to the understanding of the transmission.