Rapid Responses to:

FEATURE:
Paul de Lay, Robert Greener, and Jose Antonio Izazola
Are we spending too much on HIV?
BMJ 2007; 334: 345 [Full text]
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[Read Rapid Response] More HIV/AIDS prevention equals net financial savings
Kenneth A Hoekstra, PhD   (23 February 2007)

More HIV/AIDS prevention equals net financial savings 23 February 2007
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Kenneth A Hoekstra, PhD,
Assistant Professor of Pathology
Western States Chiropractic College

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Re: More HIV/AIDS prevention equals net financial savings

Dear Editor,

The recent articles by de Lay and colleagues (1) and England (2) illustrate the continued dialogue for/against spending more money on global HIV/AIDS initiatives. These are important issues encompassing financial burden of HIV treatment, socioeconomic factors and varied health care delivery mechanisms. Important initiatives have been put into place to facilitate such initiatives, namely Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis, and the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Both of these approaches offer financial assistance to countries stricken with this problem. But is that enough? Further diversification of this support will be necessary in order to 'succeed'. Programs must provide integrated services that improve current health care responses. By investing more in both sound and financial programs in the global fight against HIV/AIDS more disease will be prevented, and will produce an overall net financial savings for future treatment and care (3).

1. de Lay P, Greener R, Izazola JA. Are we spending too much on HIV? BMJ 2007; 334: 345

2. England R. Are we spending too much on HIV? BMJ 2007; 334: 344.

3. Stover J, Bertozzi S, Gutierrez JP, Walker N, Stanecki KA, Greener R, Gouws E, Hankins C, Garnett GP, Salomon JA, Boerma JT, De Lay P, Ghys PD. The global impact of scaling up HIV/AIDS prevention programs in low- and middle-income countries. Science. 2006 Mar 10;311(5766):1474-6.

Competing interests: None declared