TY  - JOUR
AU  - Mahal,Ajay
AU  - O'Flaherty,Brendan
AU  - Bloom,David E.
TI  - Needle Sharing and HIV Transmission: A Model with Markets and Purposive Behavior
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 14823
PY  - 2009
Y2  - March 2009
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14823
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14823.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Ajay Mahal
Harvard School of Public Health
Department of Global Health and Population
665 Huntington Ave
Boston, MA 02115
E-Mail: amahal@hsph.harvard.edu

Brendan O'Flaherty
Columbia University
E-Mail: bo2@columbia.edu

David E. Bloom
Harvard School of Public Health
Department of Global Health and Population
665 Huntington Ave.
Boston, MA 02115
Tel: 617/432-0866
Fax: 617/432-6733
E-Mail: dbloom@hsph.harvard.edu
AB  - Without well designed empirical studies, mathematical models are an important way to use data on needle infection for inferences about human infection. We develop a model with explicit behavioral foundations to explore an array of policy interventions related to HIV transmission among IDU. In our model, needle exchanges affect the spread of HIV in three ways: more HIV-negative IDUs use new needles instead of old ones; needles are retired after fewer uses; and the proportion of HIV-positive IDUs among users of both old and new needles rises owing to sorting effects. The first and second effects reduce the long-run incidence of HIV, while the third effect works in the opposite direction. We compare the results of our model with those of Kaplan and O'Keefe (1993) that is the foundation of many later models of HIV transmission among IDU.
ER  -