Author Interviews, Cost of Health Care, HIV, Opiods, PLoS / 31.05.2017
Opioid Agonist Therapy Found Cost Effective In Preventing HIV in People Who Inject Drugs
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Cora Bernard, MS, PhD candidate
Pre-doctoral Student in Management Science and Enginnering
Affiliate, Center for Health Policy and the Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research
Stanford Health Policy
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: The US opioid epidemic is leading to an increase in the US drug-injecting population, which also increases the risks of HIV transmission. It is critical to public health that the US invests in a coherent and cost-effective suite of HIV prevention programs. In our model-based analysis, we considered programs that have the potential both to prevent HIV and to improve long-term health outcomes for people who inject drugs. Specifically, we evaluated opioid agonist therapy, which reduces the frequency of injection; needle and syringe exchange programs, which reduce the frequency of injecting equipment sharing; enhanced HIV screening and antiretroviral therapy programs, which virally suppress individuals and decrease downstream transmission; and oral HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), which is taken by an uninfected individual and lowers the risk of infection.
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