MODELING THE FEMALE-TO-MALE PER-ACT HIV TRANSMISSION PROBABILITY IN AN EMERGING EPIDEMIC IN ASIA

The per-sexual-act probability of transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV) from an infected person to a susceptible sex partner can be determined from a simple model if the number of contacts each study participant has with infected partners is known. The unusual epidemiologic situation in the emerging HIV epidemic in Thailand allowed this quantity to be estimated from a cross-sectional study of young men conscripted into the Thai military in 1991. Although the simple model does not fit the data, an errors-in-variables approach provides a model with adequate fit. Other sources of lack of fit, including heterogeneity of the transmission probability, are discussed. With adjustment for measurement error, the per-act probability is estimated to be 0.056, an order of magnitude higher than similar estimates in North America. Because data indicate that recently infected persons may be more infectious, and because extensive HIV transmission in Thailand began in 1988, this difference may be due, in part, to a higher proportion of recently infected individuals in the emerging Thai epidemic from 1988 to 1991.