Viral load scale-up in South Sudan: Strategic implementation of tools to monitor HIV treatment success among people living with HIV

As access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) expands in South Sudan, achieving viral load (VL) suppression has become a key priority to sustain progress in the HIV response. Between 2017 and 2020, the PEPFAR-supported program implemented a comprehensive VL scale-up plan across 58 facilities, processing 59,600 VL samples. This initiative led to significant improvements, including reduced turnaround times (from 150 to 28 days), lower sample rejection rates (from 1.9% to 0.8%), and better documentation of ART and VL data. Notably, the average time from detecting a high VL to conducting a repeat test dropped from 15.9 to 6.4 months. These advancements underscore the importance of a structured, system-wide approach in helping South Sudan move closer to achieving the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets for people living with HIV.

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