Pre-exposure prophylaxis and syphilis in men who have sex with men: a network analysis
Esteban Vargas Bernal, Morgan Spahnie, William Miller, Abigail Turner, Joseph Tien

TL;DR
This study uses network analysis to explore how PrEP usage among MSM influences syphilis transmission, identifying community structures that may sustain the spread of syphilis.
Contribution
It introduces a novel community detection method incorporating sexual partnerships and treatment rates to analyze syphilis transmission dynamics among MSM.
Findings
PrEP users in large, highly connected communities may sustain syphilis transmission.
Community structure influences the role of PrEP users in disease spread.
PrEP usage correlates with community size and sexual network connectivity.
Abstract
Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has been established as an effective tool for preventing HIV infection among men who have sex with men (MSM). However, there is the possibility of PrEP usage leading to increased sexual partners and increased transmission of non-HIV sexually transmitted infections such as syphilis. We take here a network perspective to examine this possibility using data on sexual partnerships, demographic data, PrEP usage, and syphilis among MSM in Columbus, Ohio. We use a recently developed community detection algorithm, an adaptation of the community detection algorithm InfoMap to absorbing random walks, to identify clusters of people (`communities') that may drive syphilis transmission. Our community detection approach takes into account both sexual partnerships as well as syphilis treatment rates when detecting communities. We apply this algorithm to sexual networks…
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Taxonomy
TopicsHIV/AIDS Research and Interventions · Syphilis Diagnosis and Treatment · HIV, Drug Use, Sexual Risk
