HIV Viral Load Monitoring in Resource-Poor Settings

October 8, 2014 updated by: University of Alabama at Birmingham

Effectiveness of HIV Viral Load Monitoring of Patient Outcome in Resource-Poor Settings

No randomized clinical trial to date has demonstrated a survival benefit of using regular HIV-1 ribonucleic acid (RNA) viral load (VL) testing to monitor patients' responses to antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV infection. The measurement of VL is recommended to monitor the response to ART in developed countries. In resource-constrained settings, the World Health Organization (WHO) does not recommend routine VL testing, in part due to the cost and complex infrastructure needed for reliable results. In these settings, WHO has proposed the use of clinical and CD4+ lymphocyte-based criteria to guide treatment decisions. However, multiple studies have demonstrated the poor performance of these criteria in sub-Saharan Africa and the frequent discordance between immunologic and virologic responses to ART.

The use of routine viral load monitoring should be evaluated in resource-constrained settings. The investigators hypothesize that routine viral load testing of patients on ART will improve patient survival, decrease disease progression and development of drug resistance, and will be feasible and cost-effective for resource-constrained settings.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The study 'Effectiveness of HIV Viral Load Monitoring on Patient Outcome in Resource-Poor Settings,' is a dual-arm, cluster randomized trial to evaluate the use of routine plasma HIV-1 VL monitoring to improve survival and decrease HIV disease progression in patients receiving ART. The primary objective is to assess mortality at 36 months among ART naïve patients initiating therapy and receiving care at facilities with access to routine HIV VL testing (at ART initiation, at 3 months and at every 6 months thereafter) compared to those initiating first regimens and receiving care at facilities according to our local standard of care (which uses immunological [i.e. CD4+ lymphocyte count-based]and clinical criteria to diagnose treatment failure, with discretionary VL testing when the two do not agree).

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

2112

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Zambia
      • Lusaka, Zambia
        • Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Documented HIV-1 infection (according to local standard rapid testing algorithms)
  • Age 18 years or greater
  • Able and willing to provide informed consent to participate

  • Eligible for antiretroviral therapy per Zambian national guidelines, which are any of the following:

    • CD4+ cell count less than 200 cells/mm3;
    • WHO Stage IV disease; or
    • WHO Stage III disease and CD4+ cell count less than 350 cells/mm3
  • Residence in the geographical catchment area of the VLS clinic and intent to remain there for the duration of the study
  • Willingness to adhere to the study visit schedule and to be followed-up at home in the event of a missed study visit
  • Initiating ART on the day of VLS enrollment, informed consent, and baseline blood collection

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Receipt of more than 7 days (cumulative) of prior antiretroviral therapy at any time prior to study entry, with the exception of zidovudine and/or single dose nevirapine for prevention of mother-to-child transmission;
  • Any exposure to antiretroviral therapy in the past one month
  • A condition that, in the opinion of the investigators, would interfere with adherence to study requirements (e.g., mental illness or active drug or alcohol use or dependence)
  • Serious illness requiring referral to hospital at the time of ART initiation
  • For patients seeking care at sites randomized to the standard of care arm: participation in another research protocol that offers routine viral load testing
  • Unwillingness to consent to all aspects of study protocol including blood specimen storage

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Standard of care
Standard of care arm: utilizes the current standard of care per Zambian national guidelines to determine treatment failure and eligibility for second-line ART. HIV-1 viral load measurement is performed if the criteria for either immunologic (i.e., CD4+ lymphocyte count-based) or clinical treatment failure are fulfilled. If both immunologic and clinical treatment failure criteria are fulfilled, the ART regimen is changed to second-line without VL testing.
Experimental: Routine HIV-1 viral load testing
Routine viral load testing arm: Routine HIV viral load testing at ART initiation (baseline) and at 3, 6, 12, 18, 24, 30 and 36 months thereafter.
Other: HIV-1 viral load testing
Plasma HIV-1 RNA viral load testing performed at ART initiation (baseline) and at 3, 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, and 36 months thereafter. Routine viral load results are provided to clinicians for the management of the participant's HIV treatment.
Other Names:
  • Viral load measured by the Roche Amplicor HIV-1 RNA Monitor kit (version 1.5; Roche Molecular Diagnostics, Pleasanton, CA, USA).

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Patient survival
Time Frame: 36 months
36 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
To assess HIV clinical disease progression (weight, CD4 cell response, incident opportunistic infections)
Time Frame: 36 months
36 months
To assess the impact of more rapid ART regimen switching on available second and third-line treatment options
Time Frame: 36 months
36 months
To monitor the effectiveness of newer antiretroviral medications introduced in Zambia (principally tenofovir)
Time Frame: 36 months
36 months
To characterize the timing and sequence of HIV drug resistance development among patients in each study arm
Time Frame: 36 months
36 months
To assess the feasibility, acceptability, and cost effectiveness of the two management strategies in a resource-constrained sub-Saharan African setting
Time Frame: 36 months
36 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Alabama at Birmingham

Collaborators

Adult AIDS Clinical Trials Group

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Michael S. Saag, M.D., University of Alabama at Birmingham

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

December 1, 2006

Primary Completion (Actual)

May 1, 2012

Study Completion (Actual)

June 1, 2014

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 25, 2009

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 26, 2009

First Posted (Estimate)

June 29, 2009

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

October 9, 2014

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 8, 2014

Last Verified

October 1, 2014

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • VLS

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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