ISSN: 2161-1165

Epidemiology: Open Access
Open Access

Our Group organises 3000+ Global Conferenceseries Events every year across USA, Europe & Asia with support from 1000 more scientific Societies and Publishes 700+ Open Access Journals which contains over 50000 eminent personalities, reputed scientists as editorial board members.

Open Access Journals gaining more Readers and Citations
700 Journals and 15,000,000 Readers Each Journal is getting 25,000+ Readers

This Readership is 10 times more when compared to other Subscription Journals (Source: Google Analytics)
  • Research Article   
  • Epidemiol 2012, Vol 2(1): 111
  • DOI: 10.4172/2161-1165.1000111

Application of Estimation and Projection Package and Spectrum to the Context of Australia's HIV Epidemic

HH Thein1,2*, L Zhang1, H Wand1 and DP Wilson1
1The Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
2Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
*Corresponding Author : HH Thein, Division of Epidemiology, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, 5th Floor 155 College Street Rm 560, Toronto, ON M5T 3M7, Canada, Tel: +1-416-978-2020 , Fax: +1-416-978-8299, Email: rosie.thein@utoronto.ca

Received Date: Nov 10, 2011 / Accepted Date: Jan 07, 2012 / Published Date: Jan 15, 2012

Abstract

Objectives: Understanding and monitoring the HIV epidemic is essential for developing and evaluating public health responses. The Joint United Nations Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS) Estimation and Projection Package (EPP) and Spectrum have become a standard tool to interpret HIV surveillance systems in many settings, particularly in low- and middle-income countries where surveillance data is often based on serial cross-sectional prevalence studies and not on notifications. EPP has not previously been used to evaluate the HIV epidemic in Australia. We derived best HIV estimates using EPP and assumptions that reflect the current understanding of HIV epidemiology in Australia and compared derived estimates with independent estimates and estimates from mathematical models using backprojections method.

Methods: The epidemic curves for different population groups (i.e., men who have sex with men, injecting drug users, and low-risk population) generated by EPP were combined with antiretroviral therapy (ART) data into a demographic projection model, Spectrum to determine the consequences of the HIV epidemic in Australia.

Results: The overall pattern of the HIV epidemic was consistent with both independent estimates and backprojection modelling estimates. However, the number of HIV-infected females, AIDS-related deaths, and the number in need of ART estimated by EPP were approximately 3.7 times, 20 times, and 6.3 times, respectively higher than independent estimates based on our current surveillance system. EPP estimates of new HIV infections were, however, half the number of independent and back-projection estimates.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that customized tools that are tailored to the unique epidemiology and surveillance mechanisms in each setting are required to enable effective programmatic response and policy.

Keywords: Antiretroviral therapy; HIV/AIDS; Modelling; Surveillance; Transmission risk

Citation: Thein HH, Zhang L, Wand H, Wilson DP (2012) Application of Estimation and Projection Package and Spectrum to the Context of Australia’s HIV Epidemic. Epidemiol 2:111. Doi: 10.4172/2161-1165.1000111

Copyright: © 2012 Thein HH, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Top