African Partners Gather to Discuss HIV Viral Load Testing Programmes in Africa

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African Partners Gather to Discuss HIV Viral Load Testing Programmes in Africa

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, (17 April 2013) – More than 120 HIV clinicians, policy makers, and laboratory scientists gathered in Cape Town, South Africa from 18-20 April 2013 at the invitation of the African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM), the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for Africa (WHO-AFRO), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the Society for AIDS in Africa (SAA), and the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society for a three-day consultation to discuss how best to design and implement effective and sustainable HIV viral load testing programmes in Africa.

Convening under the theme “Viral Load Testing in African HIV Treatment Programmes,” healthcare professionals and stakeholders from more than 20 African Ministries of Health and other global partners developed consensus strategies for strengthening or expanding HIV viral load testing capacity in Africa; attendees also worked to enhance partnerships to support the scale-up of this important diagnostic test and monitoring marker of HIV infection.

“Viral load is the best tool we have for monitoring treatment success and deciding when to switch to new antiretroviral therapy (ART) medications,” said Dr. Gottfried Hirnschall, Director, HIV/AIDS Department, World Health Organization. “To better support people on ART and support the preventive benefits of ART in reducing HIV transmission, improving access to simple, affordable viral load testing in resource-limited settings is a priority for the coming years.”

“Ensuring that people living with HIV have access to safe and accurate monitoring of the virus is a basic human right,” said Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS. “Testing needs to be simpler, quicker, more cost effective and more widely available, only then will the full benefits of antiretroviral therapy be realised.”

As part of an overall effort to achieve an AIDS-free generation, many countries in Africa have started to adopt and implement HIV viral load testing programmes. A number of challenges exist which limit test access and cost-effectiveness. This consultative meeting aimed to:

  • Develop strategies and recommendations for adopting and implementing HIV viral load testing policy, in consideration of World Health Organization guidelines;
  • Review operational, technical and financial challenges to expanding access to HIV viral load testing in Africa, especially in difficult to reach areas;
  • Discuss strategies for development of technical skills and technology transfer; and,
  • Develop strategies to utilise existing capacity of and implement future point-of-care HIV viral load technologies.

Speakers and attendees included representatives from African Ministries of Health, the South African National Health Laboratory Service, World Health Organization, UNAIDS, United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, government global health programmes, private organisations and industry.

“As African health programmes continue to achieve marked success concerning patient outcomes, mature laboratory programmes remain integral to this achievement. ASLM is the first pan-African organisation committed exclusively to advancing and guiding laboratory medicine,” says Dr. Tsehaynesh Messele, ASLM Chief Executive Officer. “Laboratory services play a pivotal role in maintaining strong, healthy communities, part of which is monitoring HIV viral load in patients.”

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Meeting co-conveners:

The African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM) is a pan-African professional body working with countries to advance the laboratory medicine profession and networks in Africa.
www.ASLM.org

The World Health Organization (WHO) is the specialised United Nations agency for global health matters. The mandate of the Organization is defined by its Member States in
the Constitution adopted in 1946 that determines the objectives and functions of the Organization, its membership and its organs. The WHO African Region is one of the six regions of WHO. The Organization’s presence in the region consists of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa, a Secretariat for the African region, three Inter-country Support Teams (ISTs) and WHO Country and Liaison Offices located in 46 Member States.
www.afro.who.int

UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, is an innovative partnership that leads and inspires the world in achieving universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.
www.unaids.org

The Society for AIDS in Africa (SAA), custodian of ICASA, is a non-profit organisation dedicated to the promotion of HIV/AIDS research and advocacy response to the epidemic in Africa. SAA envisions an African continent free of HIV, tuberculosis and malaria.
www.saafrica.org

The Southern African HIV Clinicians Society (the Society) is a membership organisation of over 3,000 healthcare workers with an interest in HIV. The Society’s mission is to promote evidence-based, quality HIV healthcare in Southern Africa.
www.sahivsoc.org