AIDS 1989, 3 : 310-1


Preventing the heterosexual spread of AIDS: what is the best advice if compliance is taken into account?

Knut M. Wittkowski

Department of Computer Science, University of Pittsburgh


Abstract: It has been recently advocated that avoiding partners who may be at high risk of carrying HIV provides 5000-fold better protection against HIV infection than usage of condoms [1]. In this paper,, it is demonstrated that this guideline is largely based on unrealistic assumptions. If the sensitivity of identifying high-risk partners, realistic estimates of the efficiency of mechanical and chemical barrier methods, and the compliance in following either strategy are taken into account, use of condoms and/or suppositories containing nonoxynol-9 might be more effective than the attempt to avoid high-risk partners. Thus, both barrier methods should be strongly recommended for casual sexual heterosexual contacts.

Keywords: HIV, AIDS, prevention, condoms, nonoxynol-9


Sponsorship: Part of this research was supported by NIH(internet-link: "http://www.nih.gov/") International Research Fellowship FOTW040 87

Requests for reprints to: Knut M. Wittkowski Department of Medical Biometry, Eberhard-Karls-University, Westbahnhofstr. 55, D-72070 Tübingen, Germany, kmw@uni-tuebingen.de(kmw@uni-tuebingen.de) current address(until 96-09-30): Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, N2L 2G1 (Address update: 96-06-20)


  1. HEARST N, HULLEY SB (1988) Preventing the heterosexual spread of AIDS: are we giving our patients the best advice? JAMA 259

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