%0 Journal Article
%T When Do Sexual Partnerships Need to Be Accounted for in Transmission Models of Human Papillomavirus?
%A Heidi Muller
%A Chris Bauch
%J International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
%D 2010
%I MDPI AG
%R 10.3390/ijerph7020635
%X Human papillomavirus (HPV) is often transmitted through sexual partnerships. However, many previous HPV transmission models ignore the existence of partnerships by implicitly assuming that each new sexual contact is made with a different person. Here, we develop a simplified pair model¡ªbased on the example of HPV¡ªthat explicitly includes sexual partnership formation and dissolution. We show that not including partnerships can potentially result in biased projections of HPV prevalence. However, if transmission rates are calibrated to match empirical pre-vaccine HPV prevalence, the projected prevalence under a vaccination program does not vary significantly, regardless of whether partnerships are included.
%K HPV
%K sexual partnerships
%K sexually transmitted infection
%K cervical cancer
%K public health policy
%K pair model
%K transmission model
%K dynamic model
%K human papillomavirus
%K vaccine
%U http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/7/2/635