Study took place in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, among 162 people living with HIV; findings presented at Virtual CROI 2021.

Home delivery of HIV medicines in South Africa significantly increased viral suppression compared to those who received clinical care, according to a study by researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

The Simplifying HIV TREAtment and Monitoring (STREAM) study, led by Global Health professor Paul Drain and recently published in The Lancet HIV, found that point-of-care HIV viral load monitoring and task shifting significantly improved viral suppression and retention in HIV care, as compared to standard laboratory-based HIV viral load testing. This study was the first randomized controlled trial to compare rapid point-of-care HIV viral load testing against standard of care lab-based HIV viral load testing, which usually takes several weeks to return results to patients.

Paul Drain—an Associate Professor in the Department of Global Health, Medicine and Epidemiology at the University of Washington—and his research team have received a new grant from the CoMotion Innovation Gap Fund, a program intended to help bridge the gap between academic research grants and the level of development needed to obtain investment. Drain’s project is titled “Rapid test for measuring adherence to antiretroviral therapy and pre-exposure prophylaxis”.  

In parts of Africa, where the rate of HIV is high, researchers found that using mobile vans to dispense antiretroviral treatment and other care greatly increased viral suppression.

Researchers enrolled 1,315 people living with HIV and not on antiretroviral treatment in a nearly three-year study in South Africa and Uganda using mobile vans to dispense treatment.