Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 28, 2026

Comprehensive & Cost Effective Laboratory Monitoring of HIV/AIDS: an African Role Model
Published on: October 31, 2010
Incremental cost effectiveness of prophylaxis for cytomegalovirus disease in patients with AIDS
J H Kempen1, K D Frick, D A Jabs
1Department of Ophthalmology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, USA. jkempen@jhmi.edu
Abstract:
Cytomegalovirus (CMV) disease, an opportunistic complication in patients with AIDS, causes substantial morbidity and has high treatment costs. Although prevention of this disease is highly desirable, incremental cost-effectiveness estimates for proposed prophylactic strategies in the era prior to the availability of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) were unfavourable relative to other specific antimicrobial prophylactic strategies in patients with AIDS. With the availability of HAART, several inputs upon which previous estimates of the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio for anti-CMV prophylaxis were based probably changed substantially. To assess the incremental cost effectiveness of prophylaxis in the HAART era, data are needed on visual outcomes and utility for patients with CMV retinitis and AIDS, on better strategies for identifying subpopulations at high risk for CMV disease and on the prophylactic efficacy of valganciclovir. Cost-effectiveness analysis could potentially contribute by exploring thresholds of population risk, prophylactic effectiveness, and drug pricing in order to identify conditions under which prophylaxis for CMV disease in patients with AIDS could potentially become cost effective.
Related Concept Videos
Retrovirus Life Cycles
Cytomegalovirus Disease
Respiratory Syncytial Virus Disease
Cryptococcal Meningitis

