Modeling and prediction of HIV in China: transmission rates structured by infection ages

HIV transmission process involves a long incubation and infection period, and the transmission rate varies greatly with infection stage. Consequently, modeling analysis based on the assumption of a constant transmission rate during the entire infection period yields an inaccurate description of HIV transmission dynamics and long-term projections. Here we develop a general framework of mathematical modeling that takes into account this heterogeneity of transmission rate and permits rigorous estimation of important parameters using a regression analysis of the twenty-year reported HIV infection data in China. Despite the large variation in this statistical data attributable to the knowledge of HIV, surveillance efforts, and uncertain events, and although the reported data counts individuals who might have been infected many years ago, our analysis shows that the model structured on infection age can assist us in extracting from this data set very useful information about transmission trends and about effectiveness of various control measures.