Point-of-care HIV early infant diagnosis: is test sensitivity everything?

Point-of-care HIV early infant diagnosis: is test sensitivity everything?

Despite improvements in PMTCT services in low- and middle-income countries, there are still almost 200,000 new paediatric HIV infections annually in sub-Saharan Africa. This has led to early infant HIV diagnosis (EID) programmes becoming a public health priority, but until recently, EID has required specialist laboratory equipment and trained personnel which is only feasible in urban, centraliz...

Laboratory Evaluation of the Alere q Point-of-Care System for Early Infant HIV Diagnosis.

INTRODUCTION Early infant diagnosis (EID) and prompt linkage to care are critical to minimise the high morbidity and mortality associated with infant HIV infection. Attrition in the "EID cascade" is common; however, point-of-care (POC) EID assays with same-day result could facilitate prompt linkage of HIV-infected infant to treatment. Despite a number of POC EID assays in development, few have ...

Early Infant Diagnosis of HIV.

Field evaluation of HIV point-of-care testing for early infant diagnosis in Cape Town, South Africa

BACKGROUND Early infant HIV diagnosis (EID) coverage and uptake remains challenging. Point-of-care (POC) testing may improve access and turn-around-times, but, while several POC technologies are in development there are few data on their implementation in the field. METHODS We conducted an implementation study of the Alere q Detect POC system for EID at two public sector health facilities in ...

Point-Of-Care p24 Infant Testing for HIV May Increase Patient Identification despite Low Sensitivity

The long delay in returning test results during early infant diagnosis of HIV (EID) often causes loss-to-follow-up prior to antiretroviral treatment (ART) initiation in resource-limited settings. A point-of-care (POC) test may help overcome these challenges. We evaluated the performance of the LYNX p24 Antigen POC test in Mozambique. 879 HIV-exposed infants under 18 months of age were enrolled ...