Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 23, 2025
An Affordable HIV-1 Drug Resistance Monitoring Method for Resource Limited Settings
Published on: March 30, 2014
Qualification of the Geenius HIV 1/2 supplemental assay for use in the HIV blood donation screening algorithm
Paula Saá1, Rebecca L Townsend1, Peggy Wells2
1American Red Cross, Scientific Affairs, Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA.
Background:
A single, simplified approach for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1/HIV-2 antibody confirmation/differentiation is needed for the HIV blood donation supplemental algorithm used in the United States. A clinical evaluation of the Geenius assay was performed-the same assay used for HIV diagnostic confirmation/differentiation in the United States since 2014.
Study Design And Methods:
Well-characterized unlinked donation samples classified as HIV negative, false positive, or confirmed positive were included in the study: 200 antibody-nonreactive, 200 HIV-1 immunofluorescence assay (IFA) confirmed-positive, and 100 antibody-screen false-positive donations, equally divided between serum and plasma. Samples were retrieved from a repository, relabeled, and tested by an immunochromatographic test (Geenius HIV 1/2 Supplemental Assay, Bio-Rad). Comparator testing involved parallel US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-licensed HIV-1 IFA or HIV-2 enzyme immunoassay (EIA) supplemental testing for any sample missing those results as part of routine testing (otherwise test-of-record results were used). Samples with discordant results were further tested with a rapid test (Multispot HIV-1/HIV-2 Rapid Test, Bio-Rad) to provide final sample interpretations. Testing volume reductions with the Geenius were estimated from screening performed by the American Red Cross from September 2016 to April 2019.
Results:
Clinical results were 100% sensitivity and specificity with an indeterminate rate of 4.0% to 5.0%. From 2016 to 2019, sole use of the Geenius would reduce testing complexity for 5265 antibody repeat-reactive donations including 95.7% (5028) false positives, eliminating approximately 5000 unnecessary tests.
Conclusion:
Geenius FDA licensure (August 26, 2019) adding the HIV-1/HIV-2 differentiation/confirmation donation supplemental claim will enable replacement of previously used FDA-licensed supplemental assays while maintaining comparable sensitivity, avoiding thousands of unnecessary HIV-1-IFA, western blot, and HIV-2-EIA tests.
