Strategies to reduce HIV treatment dropout rates: cost-effective and improve survival chances
In a study published this week in PLoS Medicine, Elena Losina (of Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston) and colleagues predict that strategies to reduce dropout rates from HIV treatment programs in resource-poor settings would substantially improve patients' chances of survival and would be cost-effective. Combining a computer simulation model with data from a program of antiretroviral delivery in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, the researchers assessed the potential benefits of several interventions, including reducing the cost to patients of getting treatment (by eliminating co-payments for treatment and by paying for transport) and increasing the services available to patients at their visits to clinics (such as improving staff training in HIV care, and providing meals at clinic times). The researchers conclude that these strategies to reduce dropout rates from HIV treatment should form part of the commitment to start antiret roviral treatment and treat HIV in resource-poor settings...