Brief Report: Undetectable HIV-1 Viral Load Among Virally Suppressed People Living With HIV: Implications for Undetectable Equals Untransmittable (U=U) in Resource-Limited Settings Using Dried Spot Testing
Most PLHIV with VL <1000 c/mL had a VL <200 c/mL and ≤50 c/mL, indicating no risk of sexual HIV transmission. Our findings provide evidence that in settings relying on DBS VL testing, most PLHIV with VL <1000 c/mL likely fall below 200 c/mL or are undetectable based on the assay's lower limit of detection.
Authors
- James Juma
- Yimam Getaneh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8222-0132)
- Andrea A. Kim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9650-2093)
- Irene Benech (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5444-9880)
- Andrew C. Voetsch (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0783-1312)
- Nzali Kancheya (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5824-5428)
- E. Kainne Dokubo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1499-0151)
- Trista Bingham (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1949-5133)
- Clement B. Ndongmo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0177-8458)
- Laura T. Eno (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-1958-7175)
- Frehywot Eshetu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8058-2044)
- Judith Shang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8978-6366)
- Gregory Chang
- Tsietso Mots’oane
- Andrew F. Auld (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5089-9163)
- Suzue Saito (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9725-5736)
- Christine West (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1102-9602)
- Optatus Malewo
- Bharat Parekh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1088-4263)
- Anna Colletar Awor
- Sileshi Lulseged (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6801-7034)
- Hetal Patel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5468-2591)
- Jessica Justman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4704-3115)
- Shirish Balachandra (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4970-5939)
- Dejana Selenic (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2160-2943)
- Elisabeth Mungai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3077-8270)
- Adriano Maida (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2317-2484)
- Katrina Sleeman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2008-8540)
- Melissa Metz
- Peter W. Young (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7432-2876)
- Daniel B. Williams (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1609-5748)
- Yen T. Duong
- Caroline Ryan
Institutions
- Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (TZ)
- Ethiopian Public Health Institute (ET)
- Public Health Institute (US)
- Center for Global Health (US)
- Ministry of Health (LS)
- Ministry of Health (ME)
- ICAP Global Health
- The Ohio State University (US)
- Columbia University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- JAIDS Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes
- Published
- 2025-08-15
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1097/qai.0000000000003745
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- HIV/AIDS Research and Interventions
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.40