title: A reverse transcriptase assay for early diagnosis of infant HIV infection in resource-limited settings.
abstract: Early diagnosis of pediatric HIV infection is confounded by persistence of maternal antibodies until 18 months, necessitating the use of expensive assays such as HIV-1 DNA PCR, an untenable option in resource-limited settings. This is the first report of a low-cost, commercial, reverse transcriptase (RT) assay for the diagnosis of HIV-1 infection in infants. RT assays were performed on 42 samples from 30 HIV-exposed Kenyan infants under 15 months of age. When correlated with serologic testing conducted after 18 months, the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of the RT assay were 92%, 93%, 87% and 96%. A low-cost assay for infant HIV diagnosis is urgently needed, and these results merit further evaluation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, New York University School of Medicine New York, NY 10016, USA. sumathi.sivapalasingam@gmail.com
authors.forename: Sumathi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sivapalasingam
authors.forename: Usha
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.forename: Vincenza
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Itri
authors.forename: Maura
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Laverty
authors.forename: Kishorchandra
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mandaliya
authors.forename: Fred
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Valentine
authors.forename: Shaffiq
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Essajee
mesh_terms: D003363:Cost Control; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000635:transmission; D015497:HIV-1; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D018445:Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical; D007630:Kenya; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012194:RNA-Directed DNA Polymerase / Q000032:analysis*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D019562:Viral Load / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D012194:RNA-Directed DNA Polymerase