Chains of Affection

This study, published in the American Journal of Sociology, reports "the structure of an extensive adolescent romantic and sexual network and considers the implication of this network for the dynamics of disease diffusion." It notes that "only persons who carry infection are capable of infecting others," and "an individual's risk of acquiring an [STD] is conditioned by the STD status of their sex partner." And that person's sex partners, and so on "into the murky, tangled, and largely invisible past of partners' past partners' past partners for however long the time-ordered chain of past fluid exchange relationships may be."