Population mobility and the development of Botswana’s generalized HIV epidemic: a network analysis

The majority of people with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa, where HIV epidemics are generalized. For these epidemics to develop, populations need to be mobile. However, population-level mobility has not yet been studied in the context of the development of generalized HIV epidemics. Here we do so by studying historical migration data from Botswana which has one of the most severe generalized HIV epidemics worldwide; in 2021, HIV prevalence was 21%. The country reported its first AIDS case in 1985 when it began to rapidly urbanize. We hypothesize that, during the development of Botswana’s epidemic, the population was highly mobile and there were substantial urban-to-rural and rural-to-urban migratory flows. We test this hypothesis by conducting a network analysis using a historical time series (1981 to 2011) of micro-census data from Botswana. We found 10% of the population moved their residency annually, complex migration networks connected urban with rural areas, and there were very high rates of rural-to-urban migration. Notably, we also found mining towns were both important in-flow and out-flow migration hubs; consequently, there was a very high turnover of residents in towns. Our results support our hypothesis, and together, provide one explanation for the development of Botswana’s generalized epidemic.