The Second Annual General Scientific Meeting on EAPOC VL
Article by; Jean Berchmans Niyibizi and Dennis Ernest Ssesanga
The second annual general scientific meeting for the East African Point of Care HIV Viral Load (EAPOC-VL) was held for two days on the 10th and 11th May in Kigali-Rwanda with the aim of evaluating performance in period 1 & 2 of the project implementation and laying strategies to expedite performance of research activities in period 3. The purpose of EAPOC-VL project is to examine the feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness of using point of care viral load (PoC VL) monitoring to improve virological suppression among children and adolescents (age 0-24 years) living with HIV in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. Specifically, EAPOC-VL aims to evaluate feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of using PoC HIV VL monitoring to improve viral load suppression rates among children and adolescents living with HIV in East Africa.
The meeting was attended by 35 EAPoC VL project team members from five country partners that included Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Netherland. This two-day meeting had four objectives: 1) evaluate the EAPoC-VL project performance in period 2 (March 2022-February 2023), 2) share challenges and see forward for planned activities in year 3 (March 2023-February 2024), 3) share and assess student progress with scientific and research work and 4) develop year three work plans and priorities including the sustainability plan.
For details: https://eaccr.org/SECOND_ANNUAL_SCIENTIFIC_MEETING_EAPOCVL
Pictures taken during the meeting are provided below:
A picture taken when MS. Françoise Kayitare Tengera, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Finance of University of Rwanda, officially opened the second annual general scientific meeting.
