Introduction
virologic failure
WEST
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends regular viral load (VL) monitoring for people living with HIV (PLHIV) on antiretroviral therapy (ART) [Standard of care (SOC) VL monitoring with central laboratory Nucleic Acid Assay Testing (NAAT) [We hypothesized that a clinic-based VL testing could improve care in achieving VL suppression for children and adolescents receiving care through an established community program provided in a remote rural district.We performed a randomized trial of central laboratory compared to clinic-based VL testing in a community treatment program at Chidamoyo Christian Hospital (CCH) and rural outreach sites (ROS) in Hurungwe district in Mashonaland West province in North West, Zimbabwe. The study compared virologic outcomes, drug switching and drug resistance mutations (DRMs) among children, adolescents and young adults. The aim of this study was to reduce virologic failure rates among children, adolescents and young adults in HIV care through implementation of a package of interventions that includes digital data collection, clinic-based VL monitoring and lower cost genotyping for persistently viraemic individuals.