Daniel Amobtiwon Amoatika, Samuel O Sackey, and Priscilla Nortey
Nyaho Medical Centre , Ghana
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J AIDS CLIN RES
Statement of the problem: HIV
testing algorithms based on
rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) are
widely used in HIV testing and
counseling (HTC) programmes
in areas with limited laboratory
infrastructure. In the Upper West
region of Ghana, First Response
HIV-1-2 and OraQuick HIV-1-2
are the commonly used RDT kits.
An initial survey at Wa regional
hospital indicates that there is
no special storage procedure
for the two RDT kits being used.
The survey also revealed that
there have been instances of
false positives recorded with
OraQuick test kits. This study
was therefore conducted to
assess the sensitivity and the
specificity of two RDT kits used
in the diagnosis of HIV in the Wa
municipality.
Method: A facility based crosssectional
study was conducted
at the Wa Regional Hospital,
Ghana. A questionnaire was
used to collect demographic
information of the subjects. Each
subject was tested with First
Response and OraQuick test
kits using a parallel algorithm.
The venous blood was collected
into SST tubes for ELISA at the
National Public Health Reference
Laboratory. Data was cleaned
using Microsoft Excel and
exported to Stata. Descriptive
analyses were done, the
sensitivities and specificities and
predictive values of the test kits
determined.
Findings: First Response
produced a sensitivity of
88% and OraQuick 98%. The
specificity of First Response was
92% and OraQuick was 94%.
First Response had a PPV of 91%
and OraQuick had PPV of 95%.
First Response had NPV of 89%
and OraQuick NPV of 98%. There
was a ??patient? misdiagnosed of
HIV (false positive) and on ART.
Conclusion: The test kits
performed below the WHO
recommendations. The general
performance of OraQuick
was, however, better than
First Response. The National
AIDS Control Programme and
the Food and Drugs Authority
should reassess the test kits
and conduct further studies to
ascertain factors affecting the
sensitivity and specificity of the
kits.
E-mail: damoatika@yahoo.com
Journal of AIDS & Clinical Research received 5061 citations as per Google Scholar report