HIV and Public Policy

Imagine you are the president of a small country. You have to decide what policy to support in order to control the spread of HIV. Here are some of the proposed policies your advisors have put before you:

1. Promote abstinence

2. Promote monogamy

3. Promote condom use

4. Promote frequent testing

Which do you choose? Should you spend certain percentages of your budget on each? What should the percentages be?

Models/Biology/AIDS

This model can help you. Green turtles are uninfected. Blue are infected but don't know it yet. Red turtles are infected and know it (because they got tested, they will now practice safe sex only). Turtles roam around randomly searching for partners. When one is found they may choose to "hold hands". The probability of this is determined by the coupling tendency. If they do couple, then they hold hands for a length of time corresponding to the average commitment.

Think of the positions of the sliders as corresponding to the percentage of your AIDS prevention budget you will spend on each of the four policies above. Which setting gives the lowest rate of infection?