Study: HAART Less Costly Than Treatment for AIDS

Caro Research, a health care consulting firm in Concord, Massachusetts, has studied and compared the costs of healthcare for persons with HIV/AIDS and found that it is significantly less expensive to maintain a program of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) for a person with HIV, than it is to care for a person with AIDS. Judith O'Brien, senior researcher with Caro, says the important point is that HAART will always remain expensive, but the cost must be looked at from the larger context of treating HIV persons in order to prevent them from progressing to AIDS. The study found that of 13,100 hospital discharges of HIV patients and 49,000 AIDS patients, the average annual cost per HIV patient without AIDS was $17,600, compared to $24,900 for individuals with AIDS. Between 1995 and 1998, the number of reported AIDS cases in Massachusetts increased 78 percent, while the rate of hospitalization dropped from 85 percent to 31 percent.

Other CDC News for February 16, 2001