Cost-effectiveness of different strategies to monitor adults on antiretroviral treatment: a combined analysis of three mathematical models.

ABSTRACT:

Background

WHO's 2013 revisions to its Consolidated Guidelines on antiretroviral drugs recommend routine viral load monitoring, rather than clinical or immunological monitoring, as the preferred monitoring approach on the basis of clinical evidence. However, HIV programmes in resource-limited settings require guidance on the most cost-effective use of resources in view of other competing priorities such as expansion of antiretroviral therapy coverage. We assessed the cost-effectiveness of alternative patient monitoring strategies.

Methods

We evaluated a range of monitoring strategies, including clinical, CD4 cell count, and viral load monitoring, alone and together, at different frequencies and with different criteria for switching to second-line therapies. We used three ind

SUBMITTER: Keebler D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4404633 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature