Should South Africa be performing nucleic acid testing on HIV enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay-negative samples?

Natasha Gous; Lesley Scott; Olga Perovic; Francios Venter; Wendy Stevens

doi:10.1128/JCM.00702-10

Should South Africa be performing nucleic acid testing on HIV enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay-negative samples?

J Clin Microbiol. 2010 Sep;48(9):3407-9. doi: 10.1128/JCM.00702-10. Epub 2010 Jul 7.

Authors

Natasha Gous¹, Lesley Scott, Olga Perovic, Francios Venter, Wendy Stevens

Affiliation

¹ Department of Molecular Medicine and Haematology, School of Pathology, University of Witwatersrand, Parktown, Johannesburg 2193, South Africa.

Abstract

The frequency of acute HIV infection (AHI) among HIV-1 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)-negative samples received from general hospital patient admissions was assessed. Of 3,005 samples pooled for nucleic acid testing, a prevalence of 0.13% was found. Pooled nucleic acid testing may be feasible for low-cost identification of AHI in high-prevalence settings.

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay
HIV Antibodies / blood*
HIV Infections / diagnosis*
HIV Infections / epidemiology*
HIV Infections / virology
HIV-1 / genetics*
HIV-1 / immunology
HIV-1 / isolation & purification*
Humans
RNA, Viral / blood*
Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
South Africa / epidemiology

Substances

HIV Antibodies
RNA, Viral