Estimating Burden of Disease Due to Continuous Propagation of Hiv Infection Among Injecting Drug Users

Abstract

Despite long period of propagation of HIV infection among injecting drug users (IDU) in Russian Federation there is still capacity for appearance of new cases. Based on results of integrated bio-behavioral study conducted in six cities of Russian Federation burden of HIV infection was estimated. Several approaches to calculate disability-adjusted life years (DALY) were used. Estimates of DALY depend mostly on mortality associated with HIV infection. It was shown, that estimates also change depending on changing age-dependent productivity and discount rate. Average loss was estimated at 15,1 DALY per one case of infection. Extrapolating these results on Russian Federation as a whole show that due to continuation of HIV spread among IDU every year 595 thousand DALYs are lost. Summary measures of public health should be used to prioritize investment in prevention.