Improving Management of Recipients of Care With HIV Viremia to Optimize Viral Suppression in Zambia: A Process and Outcome Evaluation

The Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ) as an implementing partner (IP) through its Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)-funded programs provides technical assistance to the Zambian Ministry of Health (MOH) to support the 95-95-95 HIV care cascade targets. Following the expansion of the DSD approach to cover non-established PLHIV, the MOH, with assistance from CIDRZ piloted the introduction of viremic clinics (VCs) as a DSD model in Lusaka to manage recipients of care (ROCs) with unsuppressed viral loads. In this paper, we describe and report on the programmatic performance and outcomes of VL testing at 6 and 12-months in PLHIV on first line ART in the VC model programme in Lusaka province as well as identify the patient and healthcare workers facilitators and barriers to improve viral suppression within the VCs.