Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, October 25, 2016: Collecting reliable data on the spread of HIV drug resistance (HIVDR) is essential to ensure that patients are switched to the most effective antiretroviral therapy (ART) programs as we seek to achieve the 3rd 90’s of the UNAIDS 2020 goals.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently organized a training workshop in collaboration with African Society of Laboratory Medicine (ASLM) to improve the data collection on drug resistance at the World Health Organization (WHO)-designed HIVDR laboratories to increase the accuracy of the HIVDR database for individual patient care.
Workshop participants learned how to apply global standards in quality management systems, obtaining quality-assured HIVDR data, monitoring and response, and drug resistance data interpretation, , and reporting among others. This training will allow professionals across the continent to enhance their efforts to stop the spread of HIV.
Participants from eight countries (Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Malawi) attended a five-day workshop in September in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
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