MELBOURNE, Australia, July 30, 2014/ -- The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the
African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM) (http://www.aslm.org) have
joined with global partners to launch the Diagnostics Access Initiative which
calls for improving laboratory capacity to ensure that all people living with
HIV can be linked to effective, high-quality HIV treatment services.
Partners in the initiative include UNAIDS, the World Health
Organization (WHO), the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), UNICEF, the US
President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and ASLM.
“Around 19 million of the 35 million people living with HIV
don’t know they have the virus. If they don’t find out, they will die,” said
Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS Executive Director. “This is why we have to make it
simpler for people to test for HIV to be able to start lifesaving treatment
when they need it.”
The Diagnostics Access Initiative specifically focuses on
ensuring that at least 90% of all people living with HIV know their HIV status.
It also aims to ensure that all people accessing HIV treatment have ready
access to tests that monitor the levels of the virus in their bodies.
For treatment to be optimally effective, it is essential
that all people accessing HIV treatment monitor their viral load frequently.
Currently very few high-burden countries routinely offer viral load testing to
people receiving HIV treatment. New viral load testing technologies which are
made available when people first come in for care, offer promise for expanding
access to viral load testing. However they will need to be affordable,
appropriately deployed and used effectively.
“To achieve control of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, it’s essential
that all people have access to high-quality HIV laboratory services, both for
accurate HIV diagnosis and treatment monitoring. Building a country’s capacity
for virologic testing is critical for early identification of virologic
failure, drug resistance and overall improved impact of the country’s HIV care
and treatment programs,” said Ambassador Deborah Birx, U.S. Global AIDS
Coordinator. “The Diagnostic Access Initiative represents an important step in
ensuring the close collaboration among all donors and stakeholders to expand
access and enable strategic scale-up of HIV laboratory services.”
To ensure early diagnosis of HIV, laboratory procedures need
to be simplified and multiple testing tools and strategies made available.
These also need to be integrated into community-centred health campaigns that
focus on multiple diseases.
“It is essential that people know whether they have HIV
infection, and that people who take treatment know whether their medicines are
controlling the virus,” said Dr Hiroki Nakatani, Assistant Director-General,
WHO. “As diagnostic technology changes rapidly, and our Member States need
guidance on how to use it, WHO will play a key role in this initiative.”
HIV treatment is effective in reducing HIV-related illness
and AIDS-related deaths. It also helps to prevent new HIV infections, by
sharply suppressing viral load and decreasing the risk of HIV transmission.
“The Diagnostic Access Initiative focuses urgent attention
on the importance of developing new, affordable viral load and infant diagnosis
technologies and effectively using the laboratory capacity we currently have,”
said Dr. Tsehaynesh Messele, Chief Executive Officer of ASLM. “Effectively
using existing and emerging viral load and infant diagnosis technologies will
demand substantially stronger laboratory capacity as well as strategic planning
to ensure that all technologies are optimally used.”
Partners in the initiative will advocate for greater funding
for laboratory services and for the development of new diagnostic tools. They
will also strengthen efforts to ensure that diagnostic services are of the
highest quality and forge well-coordinated partnerships to close diagnostic
access gaps.
Distributed by APO (African Press
Organization) on behalf of the African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM).
Na Mwanaharakati.
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