Resumen de Building networks of sexual partners. Application for the study of the transmission dynamics of human papillomavirus (hpv)
Víctor Sánchez Alonso
Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) have been a major public health threat for a long time in human history. Modern concerns about STD began with the pandemic of syphilis which spread over Europe in the early sixteenth century.
The human papillomavirus (HPV) is the direct cause of more than half million new cases of cervical cancer, the second most common malignancy among women and a leading cause of cancer death worldwide. It also causes anogenital warts and other related diseases.
In this work we have studied the transmission dynamics of HPV over a sexual contacts network. In order to predict the evolution of these kind of diseases, we need a reliable model of the underlying social network in which the infection spreads. We have built a lifetime sexual partners (LSP) network based on demographic data and surveys about sexual habits.
Most of the modeling approaches to STD in general and HPV in particular, are done using classical models where the hypothesis of homogeneous mixing (everybody can transmit a disease to everybody) is assumed. However, homogeneous mixing is not a reasonable hypothesis and consequences of this assumption can be seen, for instance, in that the effects of vaccination schedules against HPV have been detected in Australia much sooner than what the classical models predicted.
There is a debate concerning the vaccination of young men. Elbasha et al. found some evidences that the vaccination of boys could also be cost-effective. In our model we consider both heterosexual men, and men who have sex with men (MSM) populations and the connections among them letting us to study this matter. With our model simulate and carry out vaccination campaigns in order to figure out the best strategies. All these results can be useful for policy makers in Public Health to make appropriate decisions respect to HPV.
