Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 30, 2025
Comprehensive & Cost Effective Laboratory Monitoring of HIV/AIDS: an African Role Model
Published on: October 31, 2010
Indicator-condition-guided HIV testing in rural DRC
Pascal Migaud1,2, Julia Naidenow3, Leyli Ghaeni3
1Department of Infectious Diseases, St. Joseph Hospital, Wüsthoffstrasse 15, 12101, Berlin, Germany. pascal.migaud@sjk.de.
Background:
HIV testing services are a key component of the 95-95-95-0 goals. In many parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo the availability of test kits is limited for multiple reasons. Targeted testing of patients with HIV indicator conditions is therefore the only feasible option in these settings.
Methods:
We introduced an indicator condition-guided HIV testing project in the Emergency Room of the Hôpital Géneral de Référence de Kikwit, DRC.
Results:
We screened 1274 patients for indicator condition. In 94 (7.4%) patients, the treating physician diagnosed at least one HIV indicator. 34 (36.2%) tested HIV-positive (2.7% of screened patients). 52% of the newly diagnosed patients were lost to follow-up two months after the first diagnosis of HIV.
Conclusion:
In a resource-limited setting with insufficient availability of HIV-Tests, indicator-triggered testing is a useful tool to find a high number of HIV-positive patients. Loss to follow-up is one of the major challenges.
