HIV viral suppression in children and adolescents who transitioned from ritonavir‐boosted lopinavir‐ to dolutegravir‐based antiretroviral therapy in Lesotho

Abstract Objectives Children and adolescents living with HIV previously taking ritonavir‐boosted lopinavir (LPV/r)‐based antiretroviral therapy (ART) have been programmatically transitioned to dolutegravir (DTG)‐based regimens in many country programs. We aimed to describe treatment outcomes following this transition in Lesotho, southern Africa. Design We analyzed routinely collected data from two open cohorts across 27 health facilities in Lesotho. Methods We included children and adolescents ( Results Among 852 participants, 410 (48.1%) were female, the median age was 10.1 years (interquartile range [IQR] 7.6–13.0) and the median time on ART at transition was 8.1 years (IQR 5.6–11.1). Of 768 with a pre‐transition VL, 617 (80.3%) had viral suppression (VS; Conclusion We observed improved and sustained VS among children and adolescents in routine care in Lesotho after programmatic transition to DTG‐based ART, supporting continued scale‐up of DTG in paediatric HIV programmes.