Calling it a historic day, Shri J P Nadda, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare launched the ‘‘Viral Load testing for all People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV),”at a function, on Monday. The initiative will provide free of cost viral load testing for 12 lakh PLHIV on treatment in the country at least once a year. ShriNadda further announced that after ‘Treat All’, Viral Load test is a big step forward in treating and monitoring people living with HIV.
Routine viral load testing will optimize the utilization of 1st line regimens, thus preventing drug resistance and ensuring the longevity of people living with HIV. “Viral Load testing will empower medical officers at ART to detect failure on first line treatment early and therefore save PLHIV from developing resistance to drugs. It will also help in strengthening ‘Mission Sampark’ in tracking LFU (Loss to Follow Up) PLHIV,” ShriNadda added.
At the function, Shri J P Nadda also released the National Guidelines for HIV-1 Viral Load Laboratory Testing, National Operational Guidelines for Viral Load Testing, Standard Operating Procedure for HIV-1 Quant Assay with CBNAAT and Guidelines on Quality Monitoring System for Outsourced Viral Load Tests.
