Effect of Voluntary Rapid Testing on HIV and AIDS Transmission: Mathematical Modelling

Abstract

In Korea, the cumulative number of infected cases is 9,615 by 2014, according to World Health Organization (WHO), it is, however, underestimated. To prevent this problem, testing is critical for individual to be aware of their serostatus. To enhance the effect of testing, rapid testing pilot testing started in 2014 in Seoul, Korea, it is, and however, due to the voluntary and anonymous characteristic of the testing, the effect of it has not been studied. The result has shown that when the rapid testing is only conducted in Seoul with national wide conventional testing will lead to 35% and 25% in HIV and AIDS cases in 5 years, respectively. When the rapid testing is conducted throughout Korea with national conventional testing, reduction rate for HIV and AIDS cases are 50% and 39%, respectively. Therefore, the rapid testing can be a critical factor to detect HIV/AIDS cases and proceed into reducing HIV/AIDS underestimation in Korea