Assessment of the implementation of HIV-rapid test kits at different levels of health institutions in Ethiopia.

Objective: Evaluation and monitoring of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) testing reagents at the point of service is helpful to prevent the occurrence of problems related to testing and interpretation. To evaluate the implementation of HIV rapid test kits at the point of services in voluntarily counseling and testing (VCT) and diagnostic centers in Ethiopia.

Methods: The assessment was the third phase of evaluation of HIV rapid test kits in Ethiopia followed from phase-I and phase-II.

Evaluation of rapid HIV test kits on whole blood and development of rapid testing algorithm for voluntary testing and counseling centers in Ethiopia.

Five simple and rapid HIV antibody detection assays viz. Determine, Capillus, Oraquick, Unigold and Hemastrip were evaluated to examine their performance and to develop an alternative rapid test based testing algorithm for voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) in Ethiopia. All the kits were tested on whole blood, plasma and serum.