title: Cost-effectiveness of competing diagnostic-therapeutic strategies for visceral leishmaniasis.
abstract: Reported are the results of a formal decision analysis which facilitated the choice of the most appropriate test-treatment strategy for visceral leishmaniasis in areas where the disease is endemic. The following strategies were compared: treatment of all suspects (strategy A); testing by means of parasitological investigation followed by treatment of positives (strategy B); two-step testing by means of the direct agglutination test (DAT) followed by treatment of patients with high titres as well as those with parasitologically confirmed borderline titres (strategy C); and DAT followed by treatment of positives (strategy D). The results for each strategy were expressed as costs in US$ per death averted. The effectiveness of strategies C and D was close to that of strategy A and far better than that of strategy B. The cost-effectiveness ratio for strategies C and D (US$ 465 per death averted) was not substantially higher than that of testing by means of parasitological investigation followed by treatment of positives (strategy B), which was the most cost-effective strategy at US$448 per death averted. At current prices of antimonial drugs, the cost of test-treatment strategies depends more on the cost of treatment than on that of testing. The use of a sensitive serological test such as the DAT is recommended as the basis of test-treatment strategies for visceral leishmaniasis in areas where the disease is endemic.
authors.affiliation: Unit of Epidemiology, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Boelaert
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lynen
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Desjeux
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Van der Stuyft
mesh_terms: D000372:Agglutination Tests / Q000191:economics; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D006801:Humans; D007898:Leishmaniasis, Visceral / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000191:economics / Q000628:therapy*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity