The cost-effectiveness of HIV preventive measures among injecting drug users in Svetlogorsk, Belarus
Abstract
The aim of this study was to undertake a cost-effectiveness analysis of a harm reduction and HIV prevention project for injecting drug users (IDUs) in Eastern Europe. Economic evaluation methods were adapted to consider the effect of an eight month financing gap that negatively impacted on project implementation.
Financial and economic costs of implementing the intervention were retrospectively analysed. The data were also modelled to estimate the costs of a fully-functioning project. Estimates of the intervention impact on sexual and injecting behaviour were obtained from existing pre and post-intervention behavioural surveys of IDUs. A dynamic mathematical model was used to translate these changes into estimates of HIV infections averted among IDUs and their sexual partners. Projections of the potential effect of the shortfall in funding on the impact of the intervention were made.
Citation
Addiction (2004) 99 (12)1565-76 [DOI: 10.1111/j.1360-0443.2004.00899.x]
Links
The cost-effectiveness of HIV preventive measures among injecting drug users in Svetlogorsk, Belarus