Cost-effectiveness of treating multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Despite the existence of effective drug treatments, tuberculosis (TB) causes 2 million deaths annually worldwide. Effective treatment is complicated by multidrug-resistant TB (MDR TB) strains that respond only to second-line drugs. We projected the health benefits and cost-effectiveness of using drug susceptibility testing and second-line drugs in a lower-middle-income setting with high levels of MDR TB.

Methods and findings

We developed a dynamic state-transition model of TB. In a base case analysis, the model was calibrated to approximate the TB epidemic in Peru, a setting with a smear-positive TB incidence of 120 per 100,000 and 4.5% MDR TB among prevalent cases. Secondary analyses considered other settings. The following strategies were evaluated: first-line d

SUBMITTER: Resch SC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1483913 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature