Cost-Effectiveness of Harm Reduction Interventions in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China
China's AIDS epidemic is mostly concentrated in high-risk populations, especially injection drug users and sex workers. Implementation of harm reduction programs in China has expanded rapidly in the past few years. The government resources devoted to AIDS nearly tripled between 2004 and 2005, and have increased sixty-fold relative to their level in 2000. This level of commitment warrants a careful examination of the efficiency with which these programs operate. As China's AIDS program is scaled up, issues concerning the allocation and effectiveness of resource use are rapidly gaining importance The objective of the study is to present the cost and cost-effectiveness of harm reduction interventions in Guangxi Province to help policymakers and program staff to mount a well-targeted, cost-effective, evidence-based HIV/AIDS prevention response. The study consists of two parts. The first part is to compile and analyze the resources used and their costs for delivering harm reduction services. The second part is to model the epidemic impact of behavioral changes produced by these HIV prevention interventions. The study examined three types of harm reduction activities: methadone maintenance treatment (MMT); needle exchange programs (NEPs); and a program for sex workers. Thus, identifying ways of increasing productivity may be promising avenues for enhancing efficiency. The cost-effectiveness analysis, based on an epidemic model liking with behavioral parameters, found the needle exchange program to be the most cost-effective of three interventions examined in this study.