The role of behavioral changes and prompt treatment in the control of STIs

In this paper, we study general recovery functions and treatment in the dynamics of an [Formula: see text] model for sexually transmitted infections with nonzero partnership length. It is shown how partnership dynamics influences the predicted prevalence at the steady state and the basic reproduction number. Sobol's indices are used to evaluate the contribution of model parameters to the overall variance of [Formula: see text]. The recovery functions studied here take into account that society's capacity to provide treatment is limited when the number of infected individuals is large. Bifurcation analysis is used to establish a relationship between an alert level of prevalence and the minimum recovery time that guarantees the eradication of the disease. We also show that a backward bifurcation can occur when there are delays in the treatment of infected individuals.