Young age a predictor of weak reactivity in a rapid antibody test in infants infected with HIV.

In a resource-constrained African setting, children suspected of being infected with HIV are often screened with rapid antibody tests prior to definitive diagnosis with viral genome detection. It has previously been shown that a rapid antibody assay such as the Capillus HIV-1/HIV-2 test may have a high false-negative rate in infants. In this study CD(4) (+) count and percentage, HIV-1 viral load, antigen-specific reactivity, and age was explored as predictors of negative or low antibody reactivity by this assay.