Modeling For Our Lives: A Theoretical Study of HIV/AIDS Epidemiology Through Mathematical Modeling

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is the largest global epidemic of our time, claiming 30 million lives since its discovering. Countless researchers and activists have focused on the epidemiology of HIV in order to slow transmission and in the past two decades researchers have compiled tremendous amounts of data about the disease, how it is transmitted, and the people affected by it. This thesis looks to examine the HIV epidemic by expanding upon the basic deterministic SIR compartment model, and other models, and evaluating how different disease models can and cannot be used to analyze the HIV epidemic as it exists today. Then, the thesis explores the importance of sexual diversity, vaccination, and different vaccination strategies for modeling and combating the disease using real-world parameters