acase@tulane.edu / Chlamydia trachomatis
(Ct) is the most common bacterial sexually transmitted infection (STI) in the United States and is major cause of infertility,
pelvic inflammatory disease, and ectopic pregnancy among women.
Despite decades of screening women for Ct, rates continue to increase among them in high prevalent areas such as New Orleans. A pilot study in New Orleans found
approximately 11% of 14-24 year old of African Americans (AAs)
were infected with Ct.
Our goal is to mathematically model the impact of
different interventions for AA men resident in New Orleans on the
general rate of Ct among women resident at the same region.
We create and analyze mathematical models such as multi-risk and continuous-risk
compartmental models and agent-based network model to first help understand the spread of
Ct and second evaluate and estimate behavioral and biomedical interventions including
condom-use, screening, partner notification, social friend notification, and rescreening.
Our compartmental models predict the Ct prevalence is a function of the number of
partners for a person, and quantify how this distribution changes as a function of condom-use. We also observe that although increased Ct screening and rescreening, and treating partners of infected people will reduce the prevalence, these mitigations alone are not sufficient to control the epidemic.
A combination of both sexual partner and social friend notification is needed to mitigate Ct. / 1 / Asma Aziz Boroojeni
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TULANE/oai:http://digitallibrary.tulane.edu/:tulane_79133 |
| Date | January 2018 |
| Contributors | Asma Azizi Boroojeni (author), James Mac Hyman (Thesis advisor), School of Science & Engineering Mathematics (Degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Tulane University |
| Source Sets | Tulane University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | electronic, 151 |
| Rights | No embargo, Copyright is in accordance with U.S. Copyright law. |
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