Virological treatment failure and associated factors among adults on first-line antiretroviral therapy in Dire Dawa, Eastern Ethiopia: A health-facility based cross-sectional study

Abstract

First-line antiretroviral therapy (ART) failure reduces the benefits of the ART program and leads to switching to more expensive and the challenging implementation of second-line ART. Routine viral load monitoring is recommended as the gold standard for identifying ART failure and has been fully implemented in Ethiopia since 2017.