Hiv uni form 2 plus o

All laboratory tests were conducted at the Botswana Harvard HIV reference laboratory (BHHRL) following manufacturer’s instructions. HIV and hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg) were diagnosed using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA). HIV ELISA included a double/parallel testing algorithm with Vironostika HIV Uniform II plus O (BioMérieux France, Marcy l’Etoile, France) and Murex HIV-1.2.O (Biotech, Dartford, U.K.) as per manufacturer’s instructions. HBsAg ELISA was also carried out using the Murex HBsAg kit (Biotech, Dartford, U.K.). HBV DNA was quantified by use of COBAS^® AmpliPrep/COBAS^® Taqman^®, HBV Test v.2.0 (Roche diagnostics, Mannheim, Germany). Occult HBV infection (OBI) was defined as negative HBsAg with a detectable HBV viral load. TB was confirmed using either a positive sputum acid-fast bacillus or culture result or an abnormal chest radiology as previously described [20 (link)]. HIV viral load was measured using the COBAS^® AmpliPrep/COBAS^® AMPLICOR^® HIV-1 MONITOR Test, version 1.5 (Roche Molecular Systems, Branchburg, NJ). CD4+ T-cell counts were measured on the BD FACScalibur platform (BD Biosciences, San Jose, CA, USA). Hematology tests were conducted on the Sysmex XE-2100 (Sysmex, Kobe, Japan). The COBAS INTEGRA 400 plus (Roche Diagnostics, Indianapolis, IN, USA) was used for the measurement of chemistry panels.

The blood collected for HIV rapid testing was also used to prepare dried blood spot cards for centralized HIV testing. The results of the centralized tests were used for surveillance purposes only and results were not returned to participants. We used a sequential testing algorithm with three immunoenzymatic assays (EIA), which detect anti-HIV antibodies. Screening for infection was conducted with Vironostika HIV Uniform II plus O (Biomerieux SA, France). Reactive samples were confirmed with Murex HIV 1.2.O (Murex Biotech Limited, Great Britain). Discordant results were retested using Genscreen HIV 1/2 Version 2 (Bio-Rad, France).

As part of the Burkina Faso DHS,²¹ dried blood spot samples (two to five per filter paper; Whatman 903 Protein Saver, Dassel, Germany) obtained by finger prick, were sent to the national blood transfusion centre in individual bags with dessicant and stored at −20 °C. Samples were punched into microtitration plates and analysed for HIV infection using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (Vironostika HIV Uni-Form II plus O, Biomérieux, France). The positive samples and 10% of the negative samples were checked using a recombinant enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (Enzygnost Anti-HIV 1/2 plus, Dade Behring Marburg GmbH, Germany). All discordant results were tested (InnoLia, Innogenetics, Belgium) once more to give a final result of 160 HIV-positive samples. HIV analysis exhausted a total of 491 samples, leaving 14 886 HIV-negative samples for hepatitis testing.