Impact and cost-effectiveness of short-course tuberculosis preventive treatment for household contacts and people with HIV in 29 high-incidence countries: a modelling analysis

Background Guidelines and implementation of tuberculosis preventive treatment (TPT) vary by age and HIV status. Specifically, TPT is strongly recommended for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and household contacts younger than 5 years but only conditionally recommended for older contacts. Cost remains a major barrier to implementation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of TPT for household contacts and PLWHA. Methods We developed a state-transition model to simulate short-course TPT for household contacts and PLWHA in 29 high-incidence countries based on data from previous studies and public databases. Our primary outcome was the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio, expressed as incremental discounted costs (2020 US$, including contact investigation costs) per incremental discounted disability-adjusted life year (DALY) averted, compared with a scenario without any TPT or contact investigation. We propagated uncertainty in all model parameters using probabilistic sensitivity analysis and also evaluated the sensitivity of results to the screening algorithm used to rule out active disease, the choice of TPT regimen, the modelling time horizon, assumptions about TPT coverage, antiretroviral therapy discontinuation, and secondary transmission. Findings Between 2023 and 2035, scaling up TPT prevented 0 center dot 9 (95% uncertainty interval 0 center dot 4-1 center dot 6) people from developing tuberculosis and 0 center dot 13 (0 center dot 05-0 center dot 27) tuberculosis deaths per 100 PLWHA, at an incremental cost of $15 (9-21) per PLWHA. For household contacts, TPT (with contact investigation) averted 1 center dot 1 (0 center dot 5-2 center dot 0) cases and 0 center dot 7 (0 center dot 4-1 center dot 0) deaths per 100 contacts, at a cost of $21 (17-25) per contact. Cost-effectiveness was most favourable for household contacts younger than 5 years ($22 per DALY averted) and contacts aged 5-14 years ($104 per DALY averted) but also fell within conservative cost-effectiveness thresholds in many countries for PLWHA ($722 per DALY averted) and adult contacts ($309 per DALY averted). Costs per DALY averted tended to be lower when compared with a scenario with contact investigation but no TPT. The cost-effectiveness of TPT was not substantially altered in sensitivity analyses, except that TPT was more favourable in analysis that considered a longer time horizon or included secondary transmission benefits. Interpretation In many high-incidence countries, short-course TPT is likely to be cost-effective for PLWHA and household contacts of all ages, regardless of whether contact investigation is already in place. Failing to implement tuberculosis contact investigation and TPT will incur a large burden of avertable illness and mortality in the next decade. Funding Unitaid. Copyright (c) 2023 World Health Organization (acting as the host organization for Unitaid). Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This is an Open Access article published under the CC BY 3.0 IGO license which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. In any use of this article, there should be no suggestion that Unitaid or WHO endorses any specific organisation, products or services. The use of the Unitaid or WHO logo is not permitted. This notice should be preserved along with the article's original URL.