In China, rural areas are a weak link of HIV/AIDS prevention and control. From September 2011, an innovative "county-township-village" allied intervention was implemented in Longzhou County, Guangxi, which assigned the tasks of HIV/AIDS prevention and control to the county Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), township hospitals, and village clinics, respectively, instead of traditional intervention in which the county CDC undertook the entire work. A 6-year consecutive cross-sectional survey, including 3-year traditional intervention (2009-2011) and 3-year innovative intervention (2012-2014), was conducted to evaluate the effects of the new intervention. Compared to traditional intervention, the innovative intervention achieved positive effects in decreasing risky behaviors. Among female sex workers, condom use rate in the last month increased from 72.06% to 96.82% (p < 0.01). Among drug users, having commercial sex rate in the last year reduced from 17.20% to 5.94% and condom use rate increased from 14.06% to 76.09% (p < 0.01). The risk ratio of HIV infection during innovative intervention was 0.631 (95% confidence interval 0.549-0.726) compared with traditional one. Cost-effectiveness analysis indicates that innovative intervention restores each disability-adjusted life year costing an average of $124.26. Taken together, Longzhou's innovative intervention has achieved good effects on HIV/AIDS prevention and control and provides a good reference for rural China.
Keywords: HIV/AIDS epidemic; cost-effectiveness analysis; drug users; female sex workers; rural area; village-level intervention.