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Economic Returns to Investment in AIDS Treatment in Low and Middle Income Countries

Overview of attention for article published in PLOS ONE, October 2011
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  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (97th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (96th percentile)

Mentioned by

news
2 news outlets
policy
3 policy sources
twitter
23 X users
facebook
2 Facebook pages

Citations

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83 Dimensions

Readers on

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165 Mendeley
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Title
Economic Returns to Investment in AIDS Treatment in Low and Middle Income Countries
Published in
PLOS ONE, October 2011
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0025310
Pubmed ID
Authors

Stephen Resch, Eline Korenromp, John Stover, Matthew Blakley, Carleigh Krubiner, Kira Thorien, Robert Hecht, Rifat Atun

Abstract

Since the early 2000s, aid organizations and developing country governments have invested heavily in AIDS treatment. By 2010, more than five million people began receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART)--yet each year, 2.7 million people are becoming newly infected and another two million are dying without ever having received treatment. As the need for treatment grows without commensurate increase in the amount of available resources, it is critical to assess the health and economic gains being realized from increasingly large investments in ART. This study estimates total program costs and compares them with selected economic benefits of ART, for the current cohort of patients whose treatment is cofinanced by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. At end 2011, 3.5 million patients in low and middle income countries will be receiving ART through treatment programs cofinanced by the Global Fund. Using 2009 ART prices and program costs, we estimate that the discounted resource needs required for maintaining this cohort are $14.2 billion for the period 2011-2020. This investment is expected to save 18.5 million life-years and return $12 to $34 billion through increased labor productivity, averted orphan care, and deferred medical treatment for opportunistic infections and end-of-life care. Under alternative assumptions regarding the labor productivity effects of HIV infection, AIDS disease, and ART, the monetary benefits range from 81 percent to 287 percent of program costs over the same period. These results suggest that, in addition to the large health gains generated, the economic benefits of treatment will substantially offset, and likely exceed, program costs within 10 years of investment.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 23 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 165 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United Kingdom 3 2%
United States 2 1%
Guinea-Bissau 1 <1%
Switzerland 1 <1%
Brazil 1 <1%
Pakistan 1 <1%
Unknown 156 95%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 39 24%
Researcher 35 21%
Student > Bachelor 16 10%
Student > Ph. D. Student 13 8%
Other 8 5%
Other 35 21%
Unknown 19 12%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 46 28%
Social Sciences 22 13%
Economics, Econometrics and Finance 15 9%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 13 8%
Nursing and Health Professions 8 5%
Other 33 20%
Unknown 28 17%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 50. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 15 December 2022.
All research outputs
#835,007
of 25,271,884 outputs
Outputs from PLOS ONE
#11,056
of 219,230 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#3,213
of 138,519 outputs
Outputs of similar age from PLOS ONE
#104
of 2,636 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,271,884 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 96th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 219,230 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 15.7. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 94% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 138,519 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 2,636 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 96% of its contemporaries.