Project R-5232

Network Statistics for Sexually Transmitted Infections Epidemiology (Research)

Epidemics of HIV and other Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) continue to cause an unacceptably high burden of morbidity and mortality worldwide, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. The spread of STIs, and consequent implications for prevention and treatment, strongly depend on the sexual networks in which these infections propagate. The Scientific Research Community (SRC), funded by the Flemish Scientific Research Fund (FWO), will formalise the joining of forces between groups that are internationally acclaimed primarily for their work in STI and HIV epidemiology, microbiology and public health and groups that have an international track record in developing and applying advanced statistical methodology and computer simulations for network analysis. In doing so, the SRC aims to advance science and strengthen academic capacity in network statistics and STI epidemiology. To this end, the SRC will implement a research exchange programme, facilitate the development of joint research proposals, and organise a biannual summer school on network statistics. The envisaged scientific goals of the SRC include the description of sexual networks and their features that mediate STI transmission in men who have sex with men in Flanders, and in heterosexual populations in sub-Saharan Africa, using existing datasets and established network analysis methods; the extension of network analysis methods that exist for static networks to more general methods for dynamic, time-dependent networks underlying STI transmission; and the development and application of a new theoretical framework for modelling HIV (STI) transmission in sexual networks, that unifies sociocentric and egocentric sexual network characteristics with the results of phylogenetic tree analysis. Besides CenStat, the SRC consists of ICRH at Ghent University, the HIV/AIDS Centre at the Antwerp Institute of Tropical Medicine, the South African Centre for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis (SACEMA) at Stellenbosch University, the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health (HDPFH) at Columbia University, the Theoretical Biology Lab at McMaster University, and the Research Methodology Centre at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC).

01 January 2014 - 31 December 2018