The largest clinical trial of anti-retroviral therapy (ART) for people with HIV infection ever run in Africa has found that regular laboratory tests offer little additional clinical benefit to populations when compared to careful clinical monitoring.

The DART study was a controversial one that saw mislead and misleading activists trying to stop a study which outcome could contribute to save many lives.

The study published in The Lancet today concluded that “ART can be delivered safely without routine laboratory monitoring for toxic eff ects, but diff erences in disease progression suggest a role for monitoring of CD4-cell count from the second year of ART to guide the switch to second-line treatment.”

This measn that limited funds can be redirected to deliver ART rather than being invested in expensive but unecessary lab tests. However, this does not mean that lab infrastructure should not be developped as lab tests will be needed after the first two years on treatment.

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