Capsule Commentary on Long and Stavert, Portfolios of Biomedical HIV Interventions in South Africa: A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis

Excerpt

In this issue, Long and Stavert1 present an insightful analysis of the cost-effectiveness of combinations of biomedical interventions for HIV in South Africa, a country hard-hit by HIV and in need of effective intervention strategies. Their examination of portfolios of interventions is timely and valuable, for two reasons. First, more biological interventions now have solid empirical data on effectiveness. Second, with increased focus on efforts to sharply curtail HIV, realistic combination strategies are desperately needed. Our analysis showed that the epidemic in South Africa could be minimized over time with aggressive scale-up of anti-retroviral therapy (ART) combined with enhanced prevention,2 but without Long and Stavert’s attention to specific intervention options. …