MethodsĪ hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted on 280 HIV infected and non-infected patients from May 2015 to June 2015. This study determined the best blood-based specimen type (whole blood or serum) that improves performance of First Response HIV RDT kit in detecting HIV-specific antibodies. The variations in specificities and sensitivities with whole blood and serum samples imply that some individuals who might be true positives will be missed and elude care. The debate has always centered on choosing between whole blood and serum in a case where a single test kit that runs on only blood specimen will be used for testing. Little is known about the diagnostic characteristics of First Response HIV-1-2 RDT kit, used as a single test kit in national HIV prevention and control programmes.

There are reports of inconsistent sensitivity and specificity with whole blood and serum samples collected from the same individual. Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission, Know Your Status Campaigns, Blood-Safety, Voluntary Counseling and Testing are major strategies adapted to control transmission of the virus and the pivot of these interventions is either screening or diagnosing individuals through testing. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) Rapid diagnostic Test (RDT) kits are the preferred assays for HIV testing in many countries.

Western blot hiv specificity