Clinical impact and cost-effectiveness of antiretroviral therapy in India: starting criteria and second-line therapy

Abstract

In India, antiretroviral therapy will lead to major survival benefits and is cost-effective by World Health Organization criteria. The availability of second-line regimens will further increase survival, but their cost-effectiveness depends on their relative cost compared with first-line regimens.

HIV/AIDS: When to Start Antiretroviral Therapy?

“…Investigators in Cape Town, South Africa, found that ART was reasonably cost-effective for South African patients and that there were incremental benefits from starting ART at each successively higher CD4 threshold (1350 cells/mL vs. 200-350 cells/mL or !200 cells/mL) [26]. The Cost-Effectiveness of Preventing AIDS Complications group developed models for Cote d'Ivoire [27], India [28], and the eastern Caribbean [29] that yielded similar conclusions.…”

Running with Scissors: Using Antiretroviral Therapy without Monitoring Viral Load

“…Eventually, each monitoring method was found to improve patient outcomes and to be cost-effective [17][18][19][20][21][22]. As the challenges of vaccine development became increasingly apparent, researchers found that HAART coupled with behavioral strategies was perhaps the only real tool to stem the tide of the epidemic for a long time [23][24][25][26]. Therefore, understanding and preventing drug resistance wherever HAART is used is essential to maintaining the value of HAART in the future.…”

Full-Length Genome Characterization of an HIV Type 2 Isolate from India

“…1 The emergence of HIV-2 infection in this country was documented in the early 1990s and was believed to have then spread in parallel with HIV-1 infection, albeit at a much lower incidence rate. The prevalent HIV-2 subtype A was reported in various regions of the country, including HIV-1 and HIV-2 dual infections.…”