New HIV viral load testing kit launched

The new HIV viral load testing tool dubbed M-PIMA HIV-1/2 VL has been launched after successful tests in Kenya. [Courtesy]

The new kit dubbed M-PIMA HIV-1/2 VL is the first viral load point of care tool designed to provide healthcare professionals with a faster way to manage HIV by testing viral load at the point of care.

This means that timely decisions will be made regarding care for people living with HIV including treatment.  

The tool which underwent a successful trial in Kenya was launched on Tuesday at the ongoing International Aids Society Conference in Amsterdam.

The tool manufactured by US-based healthcare company Abbott seeks to reach underserved communities mainly remote areas and comes at a time when viral load testing forms part of HIV management.   

The point-of-care tool was tested in Busia County by Prof Matilu Mwau, the director of the Centre for Infectious and Parasitic Diseases Control Research at Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI).

Prof Mwau said, “"Viral load testing is critical for the monitoring of individual treatment response and the effective use of costly antiretroviral medications.”

He further pointed out that viral load testing traces emergence of resistance in people living with HIV.

Dr Peter Cherutich, the deputy director of health in the Ministry of Health - speaking on the merits of point of care testing - said that such a technology will help in improving access to viral load testing which is a standard of care in management of HIV.

“At patient level, it will help clinicians to maximise on treatment options and we shall also have a chance to find out how many people have had their viral load suppressed,” says Cherutich.  

One of the features being fronted for its suitability in the war against HIV is that it is portable, allowing the provision of healthcare in the most challenging of settings in Kenya’s most rural areas.

The kit also enables data point connectivity which supports decentralized program management so that the Ministry of Health is able to monitor and raise the standard of care nationally.

Having gone through a successful testing phase in Kenya among other countries in 2011, the kit will be launched into the market next year.

The last few years has seen the emergence of a robust pipeline of point-of-care viral load testing platforms that offer the prospect of simpler, more cost-effective and patient-friendly approaches to viral load testing.

“With point-of-care testing, delays in the return of test results can be averted, enabling clinicians to identify and address adherence challenges and treatment failure even sooner,” said Prof Mwau.

Normally, viral load testing is conducted using reference technology in nine major labs in the country, samples from all over the country have been shipped to these labs, this is a challenge because results from these labs have to find their way back to the patients.

The new kit is expected to cut costs involved in viral load testing currently like transporting samples to the viral load testing labs and the results back to the clients.

 Currently Kenya has just one machine that can test over 960 samples in hour and with the others taking longer.