The University of Hasselt and the AIDS Reference Centre of Ghent University Hospital calculated that the treatment for people infected with HIV in Belgium costs 1027.5 euro per patient per month, or 34.25 euro per day, or 12.330 euro per year.
In Belgium, about 13,500 patients with HIV infection are treated. Every year, about 1,250 new cases arise. All of these people are treated with a combination of anti-HIV drugs. The drug cocktail, which is fully refundable, costs a lot of money.
Converted to the total number of patients treated with HIV, it is a cost of about 164 million, or 3-4% of the total cost for medication in Belgium. This is a high burden for health insurance, and thus an additional reason to continue to focus on prevention of HIV-infection.
