GOVERNMENT has been urged to utilise the few available HIV viral load testing machines (GeneXpert) if the country is to achieve the United Nations’ 90% viral suppression target by 2020.
BY MUNESU NYAKUDYA
Viral load tests measure the amount of the virus in one’s blood and enables patients to check if anti-retroviral therapy is working for them or not.
According to Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF), viral load is crucial in that it helps to identify people who are failing on their first line treatment and need to be switched to second line.
Although the World Health Organisation recommends the routine implementation of viral load monitoring for all people on anti-retroviral therapy, access to this important test is still a challenge because of limited platforms and unavailability of resources
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“We call on the government to consider using the GeneXpert machines that are not being fully utilised to scale up access to routine viral load monitoring in order to achieve 90% of people on treatment with a suppressed or an undetectable viral load by 2020,” MSF said in a statement.
“GeneXpert machines are easy to use and their running costs are cheaper than other platforms.”
MSF deputy co-ordinator for viral load programmes, Tatenda Maparo, said the process of viral load testing using a GeneXpert machine takes about 90 minutes and the machine can test up to 16 people a day.
“The results for a viral load test can either be detectable or undetectable. If the viral load is undetectable it means that anti-retroviral therapy is working well and the person on treatment is responding well to the treatment. If a viral load is detectable, it means that one might not be adhering well to treatment or is failing on treatment,” he said.
The international medical humanitarian organisation is for the for first time offering free viral load testing to people living with HIV who have been on anti-retroviral therapy for at least a year at the Harare Agricultural Show.