Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 test results in patients with malaria and dengue infections

Area of Science:

• Immunology
• Infectious Diseases
• Diagnostic Assays

Background:

• Rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) antibody are increasingly used globally.
• Co-infection with endemic diseases like malaria and dengue can potentially affect the accuracy of these tests.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the specificity of six different rapid enzyme immunoassays for HIV antibody detection.
• To assess the impact of malaria and dengue infections on the performance of these HIV RDTs.

Main Methods:

• Paired serum samples from 66 malaria patients and 9 dengue patients were tested using six distinct HIV antibody immunoassay kits.
• Specificity was calculated for each kit based on the test results in these non-HIV-infected patient groups.

Main Results:

• The specificity of the evaluated HIV antibody immunoassays ranged from 77% to 100%.
• This indicates a notable variation in test performance when applied to sera from patients with endemic tropical diseases.

Conclusions:

• The findings highlight the need for comprehensive data on the cross-reactivity of HIV RDTs with prevalent endemic diseases.
• Ensuring accurate HIV diagnosis requires addressing potential interference from conditions like malaria and dengue, especially in endemic regions.