Changing the South African national antiretroviral therapy guidelines: The role of cost modelling.

ABSTRACT:

Background

We were tasked by the South African Department of Health to assess the cost implications to the largest ART programme in the world of adopting sets of ART guidelines issued by the World Health Organization between 2010 and 2016.

Methods

Using data from large South African ART clinics (n = 24,244 patients), projections of patients in need of ART, and cost data from bottom-up cost analyses, we constructed a population-level health-state transition model with 6-monthly transitions between health states depending on patients' age, CD4 cell count/ percentage, and, for adult first-line ART, time on treatment.

Findings

For each set of guidelines, the modelled increase in patient numbers as a result of prevalence and uptake was substantially more than the increase

SUBMITTER: Meyer-Rath G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5662079 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature