Clinical Edge

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Point-of-care VL testing improves HIV suppression

Key clinical point: Greater use of POC viral load testing in the United States would catch adherence and resistance problems sooner.

Major finding: At study month 12, 175 participants (89.7%) in the POC arm, but only 148 (75.9%) in the laboratory testing group, had reached the study’s primary endpoint: viral suppression with less than 200 copies/mL plus retention in care.

Study details: Randomized trial of 390 subjects in South Africa.

Disclosures: The National Institutes of Health funded the work. The study lead had no disclosures. Cepheid donated the POC testing machines.

Citation:

Drain PK et al. CROI 2019, Abstract 53LB.