Summary: A cheaper lab test the aids the anti-retroviral drug treatment for people with HIV/AIDS might be as effective as its more sophisticated counterpart. This still needs to be validated by more clinical trials, but researchers in the US, Canada, and Uganda suggested that viral load testing, the more expensive test, might not give a substantial benefit over the cheaper and older one, CD4+ testing. The study estimated that using the CD4+ test, each added healthy year of life would cost $174. With viral load testing each additional year would be $5,000! Anti-retroviral therapy costs about $600 per added year of life. The repot calculated that "with more than $100 million to spend on HIV, putting the money into antiretroviral therapy with CD4+ testing rather than viral load testing would add 36,000 healthy life years." The trial was conducted in Uganda, where more than one in twenty people are infected with HIV.
Critique: This is a great study. This is going to save a lot more lives than if all of the clinics abandoned the old test and went for the new test with not many more benefits.
Impact: There are many people who suffer from HIV/AIDS. This may save thousands of Africans lives because they probably wouldn't have been able to afford $5,000 a year.
Reference: http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2011/12/01/blood_cell_test_for_hiv_treatment_monitoring_is_cheaper_but_just_as_effective.html
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