On the importance of risky behavior in the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases (Q5956018)

The author considers a population consisting of three groups: susceptibles and two types of STD infectives, namely those whose sexual behaviour is risky (type 2, the core), and those whose behaviour is not (type 1, the majority). If mixing is homogeneous, it is shown that an epidemic is possible if and only if the proportion \(p\) of type 2 infectives is above a certain threshold \((1-\lambda_1)/ (\lambda_2- \lambda_1)\), where \(\lambda_1\) and \(\lambda_2\) are the infection rates of type 1 and type 2 infectives, respectively, and the removal rate is 1. In the case of the spatial model where type 2 infectives can only infect their nearest neighbours, the epidemic will spread if the proportion \(p_2\) of type 2 infectives is above a threshold depending on \(\lambda_1\) and \(\lambda_2\), while it will not if the proportion \(p_1\) of type 2 infectives is below a second threshold also depending on \(\lambda_1\) and \(\lambda_2\). The paper ends with the proof of the theorem for the spatial model.