Costs and Effectiveness of a syringe distribution and needle exchange programme for HIV prevention in a regional setting

Juan Manuel Cabasés Hita () and Eduardo Sánchez Iriso ()
Additional contact information
Juan Manuel Cabasés Hita: Departamento de Economía-UPNA, https://www.unavarra.es/departamento-economia
Eduardo Sánchez Iriso: Departamento de Economía-UPNA, https://www.unavarra.es/departamento-economia

No 204, Documentos de Trabajo - Lan Gaiak Departamento de Economía - Universidad Pública de Navarra from Departamento de Economía - Universidad Pública de Navarra

Abstract: Objective: To estimate the costs and effectiveness of a HIV prevention intervention consisting of distribution of an anti-Aids kit and needle exchange, in operation since 1993 in Navarra, Spain. Methods: Total costs of the programme, namely production, storage and distribution as well as management, are estimated getting a cost figure per sterile syringe distributed. Effectiveness, defined as the number of averted HIV infections among IDUs due to their injecting behaviour, is estimated as a function of the level of coverage of the programme, using a mathematical model. Results: The estimated number of averted HIV infections ranged from 7.59 (in 1995) to 1.23 (in 2000). Yearly incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICER) ranged from 8.331 (in 1994) to 44.287 (in 2000) euro per HIV infection averted. With estimated health care costs of treatment of an HIV infection of 99.371 euro, the programme has been cost saving along the whole period considered. One way sensitivity analysis for 5 uncertain parameters was performed. These were the number of active IDUs in the region, number of annual injections among IDUs with non sterile syringes, percentage of lost and unused syringes of the total provided, probability of HIV infection due to injecting behaviour, and life expectancy of HIV+ persons. The results confirm our findings. We conclude the programme has been cost saving from the health care system perspective.

Keywords: Cost-effectiveness; HIV prevention; needle exchange programme; sterile syringe. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 19 pages
Date: 2002
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-acc and nep-hea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published in

Downloads: (external link)
http://www2.unavarra.es/gesadj/depEconomia/repec/DocumentosTrab/DT0204.PDF (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nav:ecupna:0204

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
Papers are not sent in a centralized mode. You can download them with ftp, or contact the authors.

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Documentos de Trabajo - Lan Gaiak Departamento de Economía - Universidad Pública de Navarra from Departamento de Economía - Universidad Pública de Navarra Campus de Arrosadía - 31006 Pamplona (Spain).
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Javier Puértolas ().