The Clinton Health Access Initiative has partnered with Hologic, Inc. and the UK-backed MedAccess to make HIV testing more affordable in nearly 50 nations, NPR reports.
The agencies are aiming to make HIV viral load tests available for $12 a piece, a move that would slash the prices in some markets by more than 50 percent.
Viral load tests measure the amount of HIV in a blood sample, and are used to diagnose acute HIV infection, guide treatment choices, and monitor response to antiretroviral therapy (ART).
Hologic will provide countries with affordable molecular diagnostics testing for HIV, hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, and HPV. Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe will only pay $12 per patient sample, according to a press release, as Hologic will provide those countries with its molecular diagnostic instrument, the Panther System.
"At the moment, fewer than 50 percent of Africans on (HIV) treatment have access to viral load testing," MedAccess' Michael Anderson told NPR. "Viral load testing needs to be escalated enormously if we're going to have any chance of tackling this epidemic."
According to UNAIDS, the organization leading the effort to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030, 36.9 million people were living with HIV in 2017, 21.7 million people were living with HIV on antiretroviral therapy and 1.8 million were newly infected with HIV.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.