HIV Viral Load Monitoring in Resource-Poor Settings

No randomized clinical trial to date has demonstrated a survival benefit of using regular HIV-1 ribonucleic acid (RNA) viral load (VL) testing to monitor patients' responses to antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV infection. The measurement of VL is recommended to monitor the response to ART in developed countries. In resource-constrained settings, the World Health Organization (WHO) does not recommend routine VL testing, in part due to the cost and complex infrastructure needed for reliable results. In these settings, WHO has proposed the use of clinical and CD4+ lymphocyte-based criteria to guide treatment decisions. However, multiple studies have demonstrated the poor performance of these criteria in sub-Saharan Africa and the frequent discordance between immunologic and virologic responses to ART. The use of routine viral load monitoring should be evaluated in resource-constrained settings. The investigators hypothesize that routine viral load testing of patients on ART will improve patient survival, decrease disease progression and development of drug resistance, and will be feasible and cost-effective for resource-constrained settings.