Evaluation of different commercial kits for HIV/HTLV-III EIA

Choice of an ideal, cost-effective and rapid diagnostic test for HIV infection is of immense value in developing countries like India where resources are limited. A number of commercial HIV antibody testing kits are now available with varying sensitivities and specificities. Six different commercial HIV kits namely, Wellcozyme, Flow HIV-TEKG, Abbott HIV EIA, Abbott VIA, Dip-stick EIA and Abbott env/core recombinant EIA were evaluated. Du-Pont Western blot (W.B.) kit was used as gold standard to compare the results. Of the 376 sera from various high-risk individuals screened, Wellcozyme kit yielded 100 per cent concordant results with W.B. Abbott VIA and Abbott env/core also yielded results in confirmation with W.B., excepting the fact that both detected one extra sample positive, which was negative in W.B. Abbott EIA yielded 4 false positive results. Dip-stick kit yielded the maximum number of false positives. The study indicated that 3 kits, namely Wellcozyme, Abbott VIA and Abbott EIA could be used to achieve optimum and acceptable results.