Introduction
HIV viral suppression
Almost a decade after the World Health Organization (WHO) introduced Option B+, a strategy to initiate all pregnant women living with HIV on antiretroviral therapy (ART) for life irrespective of their CD4 cell countAccess to mobile phones has increased for women in low- and middle-income countries, including KenyaThe WelTel service is an interactive text-messaging check-in designed to improve adherence to ART and retention in HIV care, where weekly text messages asking, “How are you”? (“Mambo?” in Swahili) are sent to participants, who can report problems to get assistance from healthcare workers at their clinic. In contrast to other text-messaging interventions studied in RCTs among women in PMTCT care, the WelTel intervention requires weekly mobile phone interaction. This is intended to increase patients’ engagement in careThe WelTel intervention improved adherence to ART and HIV viral suppression in a previous RCT involving people living with HIV enrolled in general HIV care in Kenya