Cost of HIV in Switzerland - A cost‐of‐illness analysis to quantify the economic and social impact of the HIV epidemic in Switzerland and its progress towards ending the epidemic

Switzerland has achieved considerable progress in HIV care, with high treatment coverage and viral suppression among diagnosed people living with HIV. However, new infections continue to occur, and the remaining gap in the HIV care cascade is primarily related to diagnosis. In view of upcoming funding cuts, updated estimates of the lifetime economic burden of new HIV infections are needed to inform prevention policy, resource allocation, and progress towards UNAIDS and Swiss National Programme (NAPS) elimination targets. This cost-of-illness study estimated the lifetime direct medical and broader societal costs associated with one new HIV infection in Switzerland. We developed an incidence-based state-transition Markov model to simulate the lifetime progress through CD4 categories-defined health states of a newly infected person living with HIV in Switzerland. The model followed individuals in annual cycles across CD4 >500 cells/µL, CD4 200-500 cells/µL, CD4