Potential for false positive HIV test results with the serial rapid HIV testing algorithm
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Date
2012
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
BMC research notes
Abstract
Rapid HIV tests provide same-day results and are widely used in HIV testing programs in areas with
limited personnel and laboratory infrastructure. The Uganda Ministry of Health currently recommends the serial
rapid testing algorithm with Determine, STAT-PAK, and Uni-Gold for diagnosis of HIV infection. Using this
algorithm, individuals who test positive on Determine, negative to STAT-PAK and positive to Uni-Gold are reported
as HIV positive. We conducted further testing on this subgroup of samples using qualitative DNA PCR to assess the
potential for false positive tests in this situation.
Results: Of the 3388 individuals who were tested, 984 were HIV positive on two consecutive tests, and 29 were
considered positive by a tiebreaker (positive on Determine, negative on STAT-PAK, and positive on Uni-Gold).
However, when the 29 samples were further tested using qualitative DNA PCR, 14 (48.2%) were HIV negative.
Conclusion: Although this study was not primarily designed to assess the validity of rapid HIV tests and thus only
a subset of the samples were retested, the findings show a potential for false positive HIV results in the subset of
individuals who test positive when a tiebreaker test is used in serial testing. These findings highlight a need for
confirmatory testing for this category of individuals
Description
Keywords
False positive, HIV testing algorithm, Rapid diagnostic tests, Qualitative PCR testing
Citation
Baveewo, S., Kamya, M. R., Mayanja-Kizza, H., Fatch, R., Bangsberg, D. R., Coates, T., ... & Wanyenze, R. K. (2012). Potential for false positive HIV test results with the serial rapid HIV testing algorithm. BMC research notes, 5(1), 1-4.