Prevention of Vertical Transmission of HIV. What will it Cost Zambia?

According to 2007 UNAIDS estimates, Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for two-thirds of all HIV infections and has been the worst affected region in the world by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Zambia, a Sub-Saharan country, has an antenatal HIV prevalence of 19% which is among the highest in the world. As part of the response to this epidemic the Zambian government has committed itself to scaling up Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) services. Even though the cost-effectiveness of antiretroviral therapy to reduce mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV is well established,there has been no examination of the resources required to scale up PMTCT to the proposed Zambian national targets. Therefore this book provides insight into important methodological and actual estimates of the costs and human resource requirements of scaling up PMTCT to the proposed national targets. This book aims to close the gap on the dearth of information on the methodological methods and cost data on scaling up PMTCT services and should especially be useful to policy makers, public health specialists,health economists and HIV/AIDS experts worldwide.