Can at Scale Drug Provision Improve the Health of the Targeted in Sub-Saharan Africa?

Adrienne Lucas and Nicholas Wilson

No 23403, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: The single largest item in the United States foreign aid health budget is antiretroviral therapy (ART) for the treatment of HIV/AIDS. Many supply- and demand-side factors in sub-Saharan Africa could cause smaller than expected epidemiological effects of this at scale drug provision. We provide what appears to be the first quasi-experimental evidence on the effect of at scale drug provision in a poor country, using the phased roll-out of ART in Zambia, a setting where approximately 1 in 6 adults are HIV positive. Combining anthropometric data from national household surveys and a spatially-based triple difference specification, we find that local ART introduction increased the weight of high HIV likelihood adult women. This finding from a clinically difficult setting suggest that the generalized challenges of scalability of ART for adult health in sub-Saharan Africa are surmountable.

JEL-codes: H51 I12 I15 I18 O12 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr and nep-hea
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Published as Adrienne M. Lucas & Nicholas L. Wilson, 2018. "Can At-Scale Drug Provision Improve the Health of the Targeted in Sub-Saharan Africa?," American Journal of Health Economics, vol 4(3), pages 358-382.

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Journal Article: Can At-Scale Drug Provision Improve the Health of the Targeted in Sub-Saharan Africa? (2018)
Journal Article: Can At-Scale Drug Provision Improve the Health of the Targeted in Sub-Saharan Africa? (2018)
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