The value of confirmatory testing in early infant HIV diagnosis programmes in South Africa: A cost-effectiveness analysis
Autor: | Valériane Leroy, Andrea L. Ciaranello, Martina Penazzato, Kenneth A. Freedberg, Lorna Dunning, Divya Mallampati, Taige Hou, Elaine J. Abrams, Rochelle P. Walensky, Rachel L. MacLean, Landon Myer, Jordan A. Francke |
---|---|
Jazyk: | angličtina |
Rok vydání: | 2017 |
Předmět: |
RNA viruses
0301 basic medicine Pediatrics Cost-Benefit Analysis lcsh:Medicine HIV Infections Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Geographical locations South Africa Families 0302 clinical medicine Immunodeficiency Viruses Pregnancy Epidemiology Health care Medicine and Health Sciences Public and Occupational Health 030212 general & internal medicine Medical diagnosis Children HIV diagnosis and management Health Care Costs General Medicine Cost-effectiveness analysis Vaccination and Immunization 3. Good health Medical Microbiology Viral Pathogens Viruses Infectious diseases Female Pathogens Pediatric Infections Infants Research Article medicine.medical_specialty Anti-HIV Agents Immunology Antiretroviral Therapy Viral diseases Microbiology 03 medical and health sciences Life Expectancy Antiviral Therapy Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) Retroviruses medicine Humans Microbial Pathogens Preventive healthcare business.industry Lentivirus lcsh:R Organisms Infant Biology and Life Sciences HIV medicine.disease 030112 virology Infectious Disease Transmission Vertical Diagnostic medicine Early Diagnosis Age Groups People and Places Africa Life expectancy Population Groupings Preventive Medicine business |
Zdroj: | PLoS Medicine, Vol 14, Iss 11, p e1002446 (2017) PLoS Medicine |
ISSN: | 1549-1676 1549-1277 |
Popis: | Background The specificity of nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) used for early infant diagnosis (EID) of HIV infection is Lorna Dunning examine the cost-effectiveness of confirmatory testing in early infant HIV diagnosis programmes in South Africa. Author summary Why was this study done? Paediatric HIV remains a substantial burden in many low-resource countries, with 170,000 infants infected with HIV in 2015. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends virological testing of HIV-exposed infants by 6 weeks of life, with immediate referral of those who test positive for initiation of HIV care to reduce infant mortality associated with HIV. Despite reported specificities greater than 99%, virological assays still have the possibility for false-positive diagnoses. The use of confirmatory testing is therefore strongly recommended in early infant diagnosis (EID) programmes. A recent policy survey by WHO demonstrated that implementation of confirmatory testing in EID programmes is limited, with 38% (8/21) of high-burden countries not including confirmatory testing for infants in their guidelines. Cost is often cited as a key barrier; many low-resource countries struggle to implement EID programmes due to the high costs of virological tests. Our study was designed to estimate the clinical and economic value of confirmatory testing in EID programmes. What did the researchers do and find? We used a computer simulation model of paediatric HIV infection, diagnosis, and treatment to examine the clinical and economic outcomes of EID programmes without and with confirmatory testing in South Africa. We found there was no clinical difference in the life expectancy or 1-year survival of HIV-infected infants between the 2 strategies, but without confirmatory testing, in settings with a mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) rate similar to that of South Africa, over 10% of infants initiating antiretroviral therapy (ART) would do so inappropriately as a result of a false-positive diagnosis. Confirmatory testing averted costly HIV care and ART in truly HIV-uninfected infants, leading the confirmatory testing strategy to be cost-saving compared to without confirmatory testing in all reasonable scenarios. ART should be initiated after the first positive test result; when ART was not initiated until the return of the confirmatory result, mortality during the delay to ART initiation substantially reduced survival for HIV-infected infants. What do these findings mean? Use of confirmatory testing in EID programmes, with ART initiation after the first positive result, substantially reduces the proportion of infants incorrectly diagnosed as HIV-infected and initiated on ART. Confirmatory testing is cost-saving under a wide range of scenarios. Confirmatory testing should be implemented in settings using virological assays for EID. |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
Externí odkaz: |