Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-2009
Department 1
Economics
Abstract
Global AIDS policy still treats HIV as an exceptional case, abstracting from the context in which infection occurs. Policy is based on a simplistic theory of HIV causation, and evaluated using outdated tools of health economics. Recent calls for a health systems strategy – preventing and treating HIV within a programme of comprehensive health care – have not yet influenced the silo approach of AIDS policy.
Evidence continues to accumulate, showing that multiple factors, such as malnutrition, malaria and helminthes, increase the risk of sexual and vertical transmission of HIV. Moreover, complementary interventions that reduce viral load, improve immune response, and interrupt pathways of transmission could increase the effectiveness of antiretroviral drugs and other tools of AIDS policy.
In health economics, the omission of estimates of increasing returns generated by disease or treatment synergies biases cost-effectiveness analysis against multiple, yet inexpensive, interventions. Current tools of cost-effectiveness analysis only identify local maxima in a complex landscape, and can play, at best, a marginal role in the epidemic, especially where it is already generalized.
Cost-effectiveness analyses for HIV that are based on the wrong epidemiological model can generate Type III errors: we get precise answers to the wrong questions about how to intervene. To control the epidemic, AIDS policy needs to utilize an epidemiological model that reflects the interactions of biological as well as behavioural variables that determine the course of HIV epidemics around the world. Cost-effectiveness analysis can benefit from using economic concepts of externalities and increasing returns to incorporate disease interactions and beneficial treatment spillovers for coinfections in HIV-prevention policy.
Copyright Note
This is the publisher's version of the work. This publication appears in Gettysburg College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution.
DOI
10.1186/1758-2652-12-12
Recommended Citation
Stillwaggon, Eileen. "Complexity, Cofactors, and the Failure of AIDS Policy in Africa." Journal of the International AIDS Society 12 (July 2009).
Required Publisher's Statement
Original version is available from the publisher at: http://www.jiasociety.org/index.php/jias/article/view/17613
Included in
African Studies Commons, Epidemiology Commons, Health Economics Commons, Health Policy Commons, Infectious Disease Commons, Regional Economics Commons
Comments
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.