Antiretroviral therapy has transformed the lives of people living with HIV. All over the world, people living with HIV who have been diagnosed and treated early and take their medication as prescribed can now live longer and pursue as healthy a life as people who are HIV-negative. Further, people living with HIV who maintain an undetectable viral load by taking their antiretroviral therapy as prescribed have zero risk of transmitting HIV to their sexual partner(s) and minimal risk of transmitting HIV vertically to their children. Accurate, reliable testing for viral load is critical for realizing the benefits of antiretroviral therapy at both the individual and population levels.
This policy brief describes key HIV viral load thresholds and the available viral load testing approaches for monitoring how well antiretroviral therapy is working for people living with HIV. It provides clarification for and elaborates upon the current treatment monitoring algorithm from the Consolidated guidelines on HIV prevention, testing, treatment, service delivery and monitoring: recommendations for a public health approach (1). This information can help people living with HIV to live healthy lives, ensure that HIV is not transmitted to other people and support policy-makers in determining the optimal allocation of resources for scaling up viral load testing and communicating the results.
