How low can we go?

Pricing for HIV viral load testing in low- and middle-income countries

Viral load testing is the gold standard in HIV treatment monitoring and is recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). Routine in wealthy countries, its cost and complexity have, until now, formed a barrier to its scale up in developing countries. However, price reductions, strategies of specimen collection (such as dried blood spots), the decision to pool samples, as well as new point-ofcare technologies that are coming to market, are making it possible to implement viral load monitoring in resource-limited settings.

Additional publications in the Undetectable report series are available here.

Learn more about MSF’s work to improve access to lifesaving HIV treatment.