Benefits Of Anti-TB Plan Would Dwarf Costs In Sub-Saharan Africa

Main Category: Tuberculosis
Article Date: 02 Jul 2009 - 4:00 PDT

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A diverse international network has proposed to significantly increase the resources devoted to fighting tuberculosis, the second most deadly of the world's infectious diseases. The "Global Plan to Stop TB" would step up use of treatments and techniques that have proved effective in fighting the disease, but would the benefits of the additional effort outweigh the costs?

In sub-Saharan Africa, the answer is yes, according to an analysis published today on the Health Affairs Web site. In this region, when the Global Plan is compared to continuing the current anti-TB strategy, the benefits of the Global Plan would outweigh its costs by a ratio of 9 to 1, say Ramanan Laxminarayan, a senior fellow at Resources for the Future in Washington, D.C., and coauthors. However, the benefit-to-cost ratio of the Global Plan would vary from area to area: the plan's benefits would unambiguously outweigh the costs in only 12 of the 22 countries with the highest TB-related burden: the nine high-burden countries in Africa plus Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Russia.

 Link to the article by Laxminarayan and coauthors.

Health Affairs is pleased to make this article freely accessible for two weeks.

Source
Health Affairs