New Global Alliance for Improvement of HIV Diagnostics

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM) have joined with a number of global partners to launch the Diagnostics Access Initiative.

Partners in the Initiative, which calls for improving laboratory capacity so that all people living with HIV can be linked to effective HIV treatment services, include UNAIDS, the World Health Organization (WHO), the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), UNICEF, and the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

The initiative will advocate for greater funding for laboratory services and diagnostic tools and forge partnerships to close diagnostic access gaps.

For HIV treatment to be optimally effective, people accessing the treatment need to monitor their viral load frequently. Currently, very few high-burden countries routinely offer viral load testing. The Diagnostics Access Initiative will focus “urgent attention on the importance of developing new, affordable viral load and infant diagnosis technologies” said Dr. Tsehaynesh Messele, ASLM’s Chief Executive.