Magic Numbers
In South Africa, researchers do the math behind the world’s biggest war on HIV/AIDS
Health economists and government officials talk about the research that helped change South Africa’s treatment of HIV.
Read full story on BostoniaFor the past eight years, researchers from BU’s Center for Global Health & Development have been collecting data in South Africa, running it through algorithms that produce more data, then delivering it to that country’s National Department of Health. The information, empirical evidence of the effectiveness and cost of new and better ways to combat HIV/AIDS, is in some ways as instrumental among South African health policy makers as the new pharmaceuticals are for AIDS patients. Decision makers in both the National Department of Health and the Department of Treasury have used the data to frame an HIV program that treats almost two million people.
