Lowering the rate of onset, progression, mortality, and morbidity remains a key goal in the management of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Antiretroviral therapy (ART) is working effectively to enhance prognosis and quality of life among individuals living with HIV. Viral load suppression is a viral load of less than 1000 copies/ml in an individual receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART), indicating that ART is working effectively to stop the virus from multiplying. Despite significant progress in HIV treatment, achieving and sustaining viral load suppression remains an ongoing public health concern. Therefore, ART leads to a high chance of suppressing HIV viral load and undetectable levels of the virus to improve individual health and well-being from the disease. However, the prevalence of HIV remains high despite notable advances in increasing access to ART. The results of this study revealed that approximately 64.8% of adults with HIV patients had viral suppression in South Africa. Individuals aged between 25 and 34 years (AOR = 1.44, 95% CrI: 1.007, 2.082), aged between 35 and 44 years (AOR = 1.55, 95% CrI: 1.085, 2.218), older than 54 years (AOR = 2.30, 95% CrI: 1.445, 3.699), and of the female sex (AOR = 1.68, 95% CrI: 1.311, 2.156) were significantly associated with higher odds of viral load suppression. However, non-African races (AOR = 0.344, 95% CrI: 0.238, 0.500), missed ART treatment (AOR = 0.478, 95% CrI: 0.369, 0.621), and married individuals (AOR = 0.690, 95% CrI: 0.515, 0.920) had negative significant effect on viral load suppression. The study is far from WHO and UNAIDS’s ambitious 95-95-95 plan to reach viral load suppression to 95% by 2025. Based on the findings of this study, the concerned body should strengthen the regular monitoring of peripheral health facilities and enhance efforts to achieve and maintain a suppressed HIV viral load.
Yilema et al. (Sun,) studied this question.