The Cost-Effectiveness of Preventing Cytomegalovirus Disease in AIDS Patients.

CYTOMEGALOVIRUS diseases; QUALITY of life; THERAPEUTICS; COST effectiveness; HERPESVIRUS diseases; HUMAN ecology

To examine the costs and consequences of prophylaxis against cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection, we developed a compartmental model of the natural history of late-stage HIV disease. We used data on the progression of illness, economic costs, the incidence of infections, the efficacy and toxicity of therapy, and patient quality of life from national cohort studies, randomized clinical trials, and resource-utilization surveys. We found that CMV prophylaxis confers additional quality-adjusted life-years at a lower-bound, marginal cost of $160,000. While this cost-effectiveness result compares unfavorably with alternative uses of scarce resources, it is sensitive to assumptions regarding the price of therapy and the incidence of infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Interfaces is the property of INFORMS: Institute for Operations Research and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)