Viral Load Monitoring Can Be Successfully Used In Sub-Saharan Africa

Writing in the PLOS “Speaking of Medicine” blog, “Helen Bygrave of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) considers the challenges of making HIV viral load testing an effective reality in sub-Saharan Africa.” She concludes, “In summary, sorting out the technical issues seems, dare I say it, to be the easy part. It would be a huge mistake for the HIV world to financially invest at scale in a test that is not properly implemented. The aim should be to not just retain patients on [antiretroviral therapy (ART)] but to retain them with an undetectable viral load. If the introduction of viral load monitoring is to be a success, laboratory and ART program managers and patients need to work together to achieve this goal” (1/27).

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