Multidisciplinary Point-of-Care Testing in South African Primary Health Care Clinics Accelerates HIV ART Initiation but Does Not Alter Retention in Care.

Background: Lack of accessible laboratory infrastructure limits HIV antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation, monitoring, and retention in many resource-limited settings. Point-of-care testing (POCT) is advocated as a mechanism to overcome these limitations. We executed a pragmatic, prospective, randomized, controlled trial comparing the impact of POCT vs.

Implementation and Operational Research: Implementation of Multiple Point-of-Care Testing in 2 HIV Antiretroviral Treatment Clinics in South Africa.

Background: A plethora of point-of-care (POC) tests exist in the HIV and tuberculosis diagnostic pipeline which require rigorous evaluation to ensure performance in the field. The accuracy and feasibility of nurse-operated multidisciplinary-POC testing for HIV antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation/monitoring was evaluated.

Methods: Random HIV-positive adult patients presenting at 2 treatment clinics in South Africa for ART initiation/monitoring were consented and enrolled.