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Viral load testing is commonly used in high-income countries but remains a relative rarity in many low and middle income settings. This test, which measures the amount of HIV in the blood, has historically been viewed as too costly for widespread use and as unnecessary for good clinical care of HIV. The past few years have seen momentum building towards adding viral load to HIV care in all settings, including resource-poor environments.
Doctors Without Borders, usually known by its French name, Médecins Sans Frontières, continues to produce invaluable resources for advocates seeking to understand why viral load is useful, feasible and worth demanding as part of a comprehensive HIV response. Their new report, Achieving Undetectable: What questions remain in scaling up HIV virologic treatment monitoring?, includes additional evidence from a five-country study of viral load implementation and MSF’s own operational experience in viral load scale-up. And in our database you can also find other, related MSF documents released over the past year.