To address these gaps, a consortium led by the Ministry of Health of Lesotho, the District Health Management Team of Butha-Buthe, SolidarMed, the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, and the University of Basel launched the country’s first decentralized VL testing platform in 2015. Located at the Butha-Buthe Government Hospital, the platform became fully operational in December 2015 and was officially inaugurated in June 2016. The VICONEL cohort was established alongside this platform to systematically track treatment outcomes among people with HIV. Following a successful pilot, both VL testing at Butha-Buthe Government Hospital and the VICONEL cohort expanded to all clinics in Butha-Buthe district and, in 2018, were extended to neighboring Mokhotlong District. In 2025, the cohort extended to selected facilities in a third district, Leribe.

After helping to make VL testing more accessible and responsive, VICONEL now constitutes a robust platform for ongoing research and policy-relevant data generation aiming to improve service delivery and health outcomes for people with HIV.