Global: HIV spread driven by number of partners, rather than concurrency

The spread of HIV is driven more by how many sexual partners a person has in their lifetime rather than having more than one lover at a time. This is according to extensive research conducted over five years by scientists from the Africa Centre in Umkhanyakude district in rural KwaZulu-Natal. The results were published on 15 July in the prestigious Lancet journal. Debate has raged for years about the role that concurrent sexual partnerships (ie sexual partnerships that overlap in time) play in HIV transmission, with a number of experts arguing that concurrent partnerships are a key driver of the epidemic in Africa.