Small World concepts explain how sexual infections are transmitted in whole populations. The underlying concept of the "high-risk" individual is not a new one. However, this has now been given theoretical and practical underpinnings.

Read this article in Nature magazine for a fuller understanding of this mechanism.

Essentially, if the individuals who are infected, and who have a large number of partners, are prevented from continuing this behaviour, disease-transmission rates would fall rapidly. In fact, if taken to its ultimate conclusion, these diseases may disappear like smallpox. It is not necessary to prevent all transmission of disease for eradication to take effect. It is only necessary to ensure that, on average, each infected person infects fewer than one other person. Over time, this will result in eradication.

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