Prevention/Epidemiology

Methadone Substitution Is Cost-Effective Option for Addressing HIV Epidemic in Ukraine

March 4, 2011

"Methadone substitution therapy is a highly cost-effective option for the growing mixed HIV epidemic in Ukraine," according to the authors of a PLoS Medicine article that compared "health care costs, quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), HIV prevalence, infections averted, and incremental cost-effectiveness" for interventions expanding methadone substitution therapy, increasing access to antiretroviral therapy, or a combination of the two. Based on their analysis, the authors report, "Offering methadone substitution therapy to 25% of IDUs reduced prevalence most effectively (to 53.1% IDUs, 0.80% non-IDUs), and was most cost-effective, averting 4,700 infections and adding 76,000 QALYs compared with no intervention at US$530/QALY gained" (Alistar et al., 3/1).

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