Monitoring viral load for the last mile: what will it cost?

CONCLUSIONS: Providing sample transport services to the most remote clinics in low- and middle-income countries is likely to be cost-prohibitive. Other strategies are needed to reduce the cost and increase the feasibility of making viral load monitoring available to the last 10% of patients. The cost of alternative methods, such as optimal point-of-care viral load equipment placement and usage, dried blood/plasma spot specimen utilization, or use of drones in geographically remote facilities, should be evaluated. PMID: 31515967 [PubMed - in process]
Source: Journal of the International AIDS Society - Category: Infectious Diseases Tags: J Int AIDS Soc Source Type: research