Zimpapers Logo

Health Reporter
Government should scale up use of viral load testing to effectively monitor and prevent unnecessary drug switches by HIV-positive people, an international non-governmental organisation has said. In a statement released at the ongoing International Conference on Aids and STIs in Africa (ICASA), Doctors Without Borders – better known by their French name Medecines Sans Frontieres (MSF) – said viral load testing was more accurate than CD4 count testing.

MSF head of mission in Zimbabwe Mr Fasil Tezera, said viral load testing confirmed the level of HIV in a person’s blood while a CD4 count test gauged the body’s defence system.

The organisation said its recent research in Kenya, Malawi and Zimbabwe showed that 70 percent of all HIV-positive people could have been switched from first line to second line treatment if viral load testing had been done.

The World Health Organisation recommends HIV-positive people receive a viral load test once a year to ensure treatment is                                           working.