Pin83 - Pharmacoeconomic Evaluation of Public Procurement Criteria in the National Pneumococcal Vaccine Immunization Program: Slovenia as a Case Study

Abstract

OBJECTIVES:The 90-90-90 target set for 2020 is fast approaching and guidelines recommend antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV-positive people (HPP), regardless of CD4 count, aiming to improve long-term patient health and to prevent HIV transmission. The objective of this study was to compare the delay between HIV diagnosis and ART initiation across the EU5. METHODS: Data from Ipsos' EU5 HIV Therapy Monitor Scope Study (Scope) were used. Scope is a medical chart review of HPPs conducted at 3-month intervals (N¼206 physicians reporting on patients January, February, and March). Physicians are requested to abstract data on consecutive 7-8 HPPs initiating therapy and 7-8 HPPs switching therapy (i.e., no untreated or stable patients). Data includes demographics, disease history, and treatment patterns. Descriptive analysis was conducted using appropriate statistical tests. RESULTS: The Scope data set had a total of N¼206 physicians and Y¼1,516 initiating patients with a mean age of 36 (standard deviation ¼ 10.8). 75% of patients were male and 24% female. The delay between diagnosis and ART initiation is significantly lower (p<0.05) in Germany (3.8 months) than in Italy (11.4 months) the UK (10.2 months), and Spain (9 months). Across the EU5, 51% of HPPs were diagnosed in physician offices (PO) and 15.7% in sexual health/family planning clinics (SH/FP). POs were the primary location of diagnosis in France (38.1%), Germany (94.1%), Italy (36.8%), and Spain (62.7%). In the UK, significantly more HPPs (p<0.05) were diagnosed in SH/FPs (47.9%). HPPs diagnosed in POs have significantly shorter delays in treatment initiation (6.3 months) (p<0.05) compared to those diagnosed at non-POs (9.2 months). CONCLUSIONS: HPPs in Italy, the UK, and Spain had the greatest delay in ART initiation compared to Germany. Delay in diagnosis to initiation could lead to higher transmission risk, impacting outcomes and targets set for 2020.

The Usefulness of Lung Ultrasound for the Aetiological Diagnosis of Community-Acquired Pneumonia in Children

“…A large proportion of bacterial CAPs among our patients probably reflects a low (below 50%) vaccination rate against pneumococci even in preschool children in Slovenia and the inclusion of school age children in whom viral CAPs are less common 6,44 . Second, the relatively low proportion of viral CAPs is our conservative approach, as we did not include patients with small subpleural consolidations and/or B-lines detected with LUS as described above.…”