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Comprehensive & Cost Effective Laboratory Monitoring of HIV/AIDS: an African Role Model
Published on: October 31, 2010
RAPID HOME-BASED HIV TESTING TO REDUCE COSTS IN A LARGE TUBERCULOSIS COHORT STUDY
Jerome T Galea1, Carmen Contreras2, Leonid Lecca2
1Partners In Health, Boston, USA.
Abstract:
To reduce costs in a large tuberculosis household contact cohort study in Lima, Peru, we replaced laboratory-based HIV testing with home-based rapid testing. We developed a protocol and training course to prepare staff for the new strategy; these included role playing for home-based deployment of the Determine® HIV 1/2 Ag/Ac Combo HIV test. Though the rapid HIV test produced more false-positives, the overall cost per participant tested, refusal rate and time to confirmatory HIV testing were lower with the home-based rapid testing strategy compared to the original approach. Rapid testing could be used in similar research or routine care settings.
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