Published in:
01-02-2010
The Evidence for the Role of Concurrent Partnerships in Africa’s HIV Epidemics: A Response to Lurie and Rosenthal
Authors:
Timothy L. Mah, Daniel T. Halperin
Published in:
AIDS and Behavior
|
Issue 1/2010
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Excerpt
Recently a growing number of HIV prevention programs have begun addressing multiple and concurrent partnerships, inspired by the increasing recognition of the association between such types of partnerships and related sexual networks, and the spread of HIV, especially in the most severe epidemics in Africa [
1,
2]. In their Commentary, Lurie and Rosenthal raise some valid concerns noting that the evidence of this link is still not thoroughly demonstrated and requires more research [
3]. While we agree that HIV epidemics are complex and that prevention efforts should not be based on “magic bullet” solutions, we maintain that addressing concurrency and the resulting sexual networks is one critical component in the prevention response, particularly in the severe “hyper-epidemics” of southern and parts of east Africa. While a causal link between concurrency and HIV infection has not been demonstrated definitively (which has only been achieved for a limited number of potential risk factors for sexual HIV transmission, such as lack of male circumcision [
4]), we believe the totality of the evidence strongly suggests a vital role. In this communication, we aim to correct some misconceptions about concurrency and to provide further evidence indicating a compelling association between concurrency and HIV transmission. …
