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Prioritisation is crucial for the success of PrEP, model confirms
Gus Cairns, 2015-05-20 07:50:00

A mathematical model developed by two researchers at Imperial College in London, and based on what would happen if PrEP was introduced to a high-prevalence region in Kenya, shows that PrEP could be a ‘runaway success’ or a ‘runaway failure’, depending on a number of factors.

These include adherence, whether new longer-lasting drugs are used, the cost of drugs, and the overall efficiency of distribution. But the model shows – as other cost-effectiveness models have done – that by far the most influential determinant of PrEP’s effectiveness is whether it is targeted accurately at those at highest risk of HIV. A programme with a fixed budget that was targeted poorly would be prohibitively expensive in terms of the moeny spent to prevent one infection, and would actually prevent few infections, because a high proportion of people would be taking PrEP who would not have caught HIV anyway.

Source:1