On the uniqueness of endemic equilibria of an HIV/AIDS transmission model for a heterogeneous population (Q1177703)

The author considers an HIV/AIDS model with the following basic characteristics: the sexually active population is divided into \(n\) subpopulations, each consisting of susceptibles, HIV infected, and those individuals with severe AIDS symptoms; each subpopulation is allowed a constant recruitment rate of susceptibles; and proportionate sexual mixing occurs between classes. Other authors have shown that the model can have multiple positive endemic equilibria for certain parameters ranges. The author proves two theorems that give conditions on the model parameters under which the model equations have a unique positive equilibrium. He also provides a counter example to a previously conjectured uniqueness result.