Summary Brief 1: Health and Economic Returns on Investments in HIV
Key Points
Investments in HIV have worked to defend against the potentially destabilising effects of high AIDS-related mortality. The return on investments in the HIV response largely arises from decreased mortality and improved survival. As a result of increased access to timely HIV treatment, more people survive and contribute economically. Given that HIV impacts people in their prime working years, better health also means improved economic outcomes as treatment enables people living with HIV to avoid health-related unemployment and diminished access to education for their children. These gains carry through to the economy overall in the form of larger GDP, as summarised in this brief.
Summary Brief 2: A Fiscal Perspective on the HIV Response
Key Points
Because HIV is an infectious disease, an effective response requires a public-health approach and hence a strong government role. Beyond the immediate health effects, investments in the HIV response achieve macroeconomic gains, contribute to reducing reduce health and socio-economic inequities, and also yield concrete financial returns. And as this brief summarises, the big prize – shifting the trajectory of the epidemic so that HIV no longer poses a significant public-health challenge – will yield long-term health and economic gains often not captured in policy analysis.
Summary Brief 3: A Health-Sector Perspective
Key Points
HIV has contributed to the strengthening of health systems overall, and the integration of HIV and other health services has improved the efficiency of both services and helped with managing HIV as a chronic disease. This brief summarises three main aspects relevant to health-system planning: Private-sector providers appear roughly as effective in providing HIV-related services as public services, although they disproportionately serve wealthier populations. Public-private partnerships have played a role especially in capacity-building and technology transfer. Cost-effectiveness analysis can assist in health decision-making, including quantifying trade-offs between HIV and other health interventions, although its use in optimising allocative efficiency is limited by implementation and equity considerations.
Summary Briefs
The summary briefs provide an overview of three main areas of economic impact.
Master Slide Set
Policy Briefs
The policy briefs provide more detail on the evidence available on each of the topics.
1. The State of Programme Implementation to Reduce HIV Transmission & Aids-Related Mortality
2. Increased Health and Life Prospects and Their Economic Valuation
3. HIV, Population Dynamics and the Labour Force
4. Human Capital
5. Capital and Investment
6. Productivity and Employment of People Living with HIV
7. Economic Growth – Overview
8. Interactions Between HIV and Poverty
9. Disease Burden Across Population Sub-Groups
10. Trade-offs between Allocation to Health and Other Sectors
11. Domestic Public Funding for HIV
12. Trade-offs and Synergies between HIV and Other Health Objectives
13. Assessing Cost Effectiveness Across HIV and Health Interventions
14. External and Domestic Health Financing, and the Role of Public vs. Private Domestic Health Funding
15. Public and Private Provision of Health and HIV Services
16. Trade-offs within the HIV Budget
17. The Economics of HIV and of HIV Programmes in the Era of Covid-19
Brief 1: The State of Programme Implementation to Reduce HIV Transmission & Aids-Related Mortality
By Markus Haacker, Kate Harris, Gesine Meyer-Rath
August 2021
Key Points
- HIV transmission and AIDS-related mortality have been declining steeply and steadily around the world. However, because of the interplay of longer survival and lower HIV transmission, the number of people living with HIV continues to increase, and progress lags behind the targets set out in the UNAIDS strategy towards “ending AIDS” by 2030 (even before the disruptions caused by Covid-19 are factored in).
- Progress in reducing HIV transmission and AIDS-related mortality has tended to be faster in countries with high HIV prevalence, and has been fairly even across countries with different levels of economic development.
- Large discrepancies in HIV programme achievements persist across countries. If all countries had caught up with or come close to the countries with the most successful HIV programmes to date, then over one-third of AIDS-related deaths and adult HIV infections, and about 60 percent of infections through mother-to-child transmission of HIV, could have been averted in 2019.
Technical Briefs
The technical briefs provide more detail on the evidence available on each of the topics.
1. The State of Programme Implementation to Reduce HIV Transmission & Aids-Related Mortality
2. Increased Health and Life Prospects and Their Economic Valuation
3. HIV, Population Dynamics and the Labour Force
4. Human Capital
5. Capital and Investment
6. Productivity and Employment of People Living with HIV
7. Economic Growth – Overview
8. Interactions Between HIV and Poverty
9. Disease Burden Across Population Sub-Groups
10. Trade-offs between Allocation to Health and Other Sectors
11. Domestic Public Funding for HIV
12. Trade-offs and Synergies between HIV and Other Health Objectives
13. Assessing Cost Effectiveness Across HIV and Health Interventions
14. External and Domestic Health Financing, and the Role of Public vs. Private Domestic Health Funding
15. Public and Private Provision of Health and HIV Services
16. Trade-offs within the HIV Budget
17. The Economics of HIV and of HIV Programmes in the Era of Covid-19
Wits Health Consortium, University of the Witwatersrand