Costs and outcomes of routine HIV oral pre-exposure prophylaxis implementation across different service delivery models and key populations in South Africa

BackgroundOral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a highly efficacious biomedical HIV prevention tool, yet despite being recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) since 2015, uptake and persistence remain limited in much of the world, including sub Saharan Africa (SSA). There is a dearth of evidence-based interventions to improve PrEP uptake and persistence in SSA, and the full costs of PrEP programs implemented in routine care settings remain largely unknown. This study aimed to evaluate the cost of delivery of daily oral PrEP, and associated outcomes, to different key and priority populations across different service delivery models (SDMs) in South Africa. MethodsWe conducted bottom-up micro-costing of PrEP service delivery from the provider perspective within twelve urban SDMs providing routine PrEP services to various key and propriety populations in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces in South Africa. The SDMs included in-facility and outreach models that focused on men who have sex with men (MSM), female sex workers (FSW) and adolescent girls and young women (AGYW). We identified all within- and above-facility activities supporting PrEP delivery, obtained input costs from program budgets, expenditure records and staff interviews, and determined individual resource usage between February 2019 and February 2020 through retrospective medical record review. Our primary outcome was PrEP coverage at six months (defined as having sufficient PrEP drug dispensed at the last visit to be covered at six months post PrEP-initiation). A subset (N=633) of all enrolled subjects had the potential for 12 months of follow-up and were included in a 12-month outcome analysis. We report the cost per client initiated on PrEP in 2021 United States Dollars (USD). FindingsWe collected medical record data from 1,281 people who initiated PrEP at 12 SDMs between February and August 2019 and had at least six months of potential follow-up. The average number of visits was 2.3 for in-facility models and 1.5 for outreach models and 3,086 months of PrEP was dispensed. PrEP coverage at six months varied greatly across SDMs, from 41.8% at one MSM-focused fixed clinic to 0% in an MSM-focused outreach model. In general, in-facility programs had higher six-month coverage than outreach programs. Across all SDMs with PrEP clients with potential for 12 months of follow-up (n=633), PrEP coverage at 12 months was 13.6%, with variability between SDMs. The average six-month cost per client initiated on PrEP ranged from $29 to $590, with higher average costs generally observed for the in-facility programs ($152 in-facility versus $84 for outreach). The average monthly cost per PrEP client who had six-month PrEP coverage ranged from $18 to $160 dependent on SDM. InterpretationThis study is an important addition to the PrEP outcome and cost literature in the SSA region. Results show that costs and outcomes vary considerably across different SDMs and populations in real world PrEP programs and provide crucial information for further scale-up of the oral PrEP program in South Africa and the greater SSA region.