Cost-effectiveness of two prevention cytomegalovirus infection schemes in renal transplant patients at intermediate risk in Colombia

Introduction: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is the most frequent opportunistic infection after renal transplantation. There are two strategies for its prevention: Universal prophylaxis, with valganciclovir for 90 days, and anticipated therapy, using weekly viral load surveillance, and therapy only if positi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biomédica
Main Authors: Kateir Contreras, María José Vargas, Paola García, Camilo A. González, Patricia Rodríguez, Camilo Castañeda-Cardona, Margarita Otálora-Esteban, Diego Rosselli
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Spanish
Published: Instituto Nacional de Salud 2018
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.7705/biomedica.v38i0.3613
https://doaj.org/article/3b12689e058f4be79fe492799c3dbc1a
Description
Summary:Introduction: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is the most frequent opportunistic infection after renal transplantation. There are two strategies for its prevention: Universal prophylaxis, with valganciclovir for 90 days, and anticipated therapy, using weekly viral load surveillance, and therapy only if positive. Meta-analysis directly comparing both strategies have shown them to have similar effectiveness. Objective: To determine which strategy is more cost-effective in intermediate risk patients in Colombia. Materials and methods: We designed a third-party payer perspective decision tree, considering only direct medical costs in 2014 Colombian pesos (COP) (USD$ 1=COP$ 2,000) and a time horizon of one year. The target population was intermediate CMV risk patients (positive receptor). Transition probabilities were extracted from clinical studies, validated with a Delphi expert panel method; procedural costs were obtained from the ISS 2001 manual with a 33% increment based on the Consumer Price Index for 2014, while medication costs were obtained from the official Ministry of Health information system. Results: Universal prophylaxis with valganciclovir was dominant, with lower costs and less probability of infection. The average cost of the first year in anticipated therapy would be COP$ 30,961,290, whereas in the case of universal therapy the cost would be COP$ 29,967,834 (incremental cost of COP$ 993,456). Conclusions: For Colombian renal transplant patients at intermediate risk for CMV infection, universal prophylaxis strategy is the best option.