FIELD PERFORMANCE OF POINT-OF-CARE HIV TESTING FOR EARLY INFANT DIAGNOSIS

The expansion of prevention of mother-to-child transmission programmes has successfully resulted in a reduction in paediatric HIV infections. However, accurate early infant diagnosis (EID) and rapid treatment initiation are both essential for reducing morbidity and mortality in children where vertical transmission has still occurred. Evaluations of new technologies for EID are critical to inform national regulatory approval and uptake, but the low HIV incidence in infants limits timely, adequately-sized evaluation studies. POC platforms for EID have undergone laboratory evaluations through the WHO-PQ/CDC/NHLS collaborative process and have recently received WHO pre-qualification status. The newly-formed EID Consortium aims to accelerate the evaluation, and subsequent implementation, of point-ofcare (POC) EID diagnostics across Africa. In this study we report on the field performance of HIV qualitative assays from Alere and Cepheid in HIV-exposed infants < 18 months of age.