Expanding coverage of HIV therapy is highly cost-effective, and could prevent many new infections

via Aidsmap, by Michael Carter

Increasing the proportion of HIV-positive patients treated with antiretroviral therapy could save the Canadian province of British Columbia US$900 million over 30 years - and prevent 26% of projected new HIV transmissions - investigators report in the on-line edition of AIDS.

The investigators constructed a mathematical model to predict the cost savings which would be achieved if the proportion of HIV-positive patients with a CD4 cell count below 350 cells/mm³ treated with antiretroviral drugs increased from 50% to 75%.

After only four years, increasing the number of treated patients became cost-effective, and after ten years much of the cost benefit could be attributed to the number of new infections averted.   

Read the rest. 

Related (open access via PLoS ONE)
Expanding HAART Treatment to All Currently Eligible Individuals under the 2008 IAS-USA Guidelines in British Columbia, Canada, by Lima et. al.