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Many children and young beneficiaries of the Rumonge hospital always have more than 1000 copies during viral load tests, this is due to non-compliance with treatment, which has a negative impact on their health.

In order to strengthen retention in treatment for these problem children, Service Yezu Mwiza Rumonge Branch in collaboration with FHI360 in the implementation of the RAFG Activity project invited 25 children and youths with detectable viral loads in a focus group session to find out the reasons why they do not follow the treatment properly, but still do the viral load exam for those who have just passed 3 months and that in the previous exam results had even more copies. A total of 16 recipients attended the appointment and 15 of them were able to complete the viral load test after in-depth counseling based on their individual problems.

Speaking group session at Rumonge Hospital

During that session, the parents who accompanied their children as well as the young people appreciated the teachings given by the social worker and the providers from the hospital in Rumonge, and were able to realize that not taking the treatment as prescribed by the doctor was life-threatening, as testified by this 17 year old boy from Buyengero: "This speaking group taught me a lot of things that I didn't know before, like how important it was to stick to my medication schedule, sometimes I even forgot to take it. Thanks to these therapeutic teachings, I have just realized that it has an impact on my health, hence the presence of several copies during my viral load tests".
One of the mothers, who accompanied her child, also shared with us what she has learned from that discussion group: "It is thanks to this support group that I have just noticed that my child still has a detectable viral load because of me. Since I am often involved in field activities, I gave him his medication at any time and since he does not like taking medication, sometimes I forgot to give him his dose. I'm going to fix it and I think my child will soon have an undetectable viral load. ”

According to the social worker of Service Yezu Mwiza in Rumonge province: "That shows that it has required more therapeutic education sessions so that children and young people can correctly follow the doctor's prescription, in order to have an undetectable viral load and therefore limit the risks of contamination".
He also states that ideally, such activities should also be organized in other health facilities in order to achieve the third 95% results. This means that by 2020, 95% of people receiving antiretroviral treatment will have a sustained undetectable viral load.