FG approves new rapid HIV test kits
By Doorsum Iwambe, Abuja
The Federal Ministry of Health on Monday approved the conduct of laboratory evaluation of insti HIV 1/2, and insti Multiplex Dual HIV 1/2, both HIV test kits and syphilis antibody rapid test kits.
National Coordinator, National AIDS, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) and Hepatitis Control Programme (NASCP), Dr. Araoye Segilola, said this at the dissemination of the antibody rapid test kits in Abuja.
According to him, the result of the evaluation shows that insti HIV 1/2 has specificity and sensitivity of 99.7 per cent.
Segilola, said that Insti multiplex HIV 1/2 syphilis antibody on its part has sensitivity and specificity of 100 per cent. He said that the test kit is therefore, recommended as a first line kit in the national HIV testing algorithm.
The national coordinator said that Nigeria does an evaluation of HIV rapid test kits using the World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines and got appropriate evaluation of HIV testing techniques in Africa, where three phases of evaluation were recommended.
“These phases are phase, I laboratory based, phase II, field based and phase III, continuous monitoring of the algorithm performance.
“National HIV testing algorithms were developed from these rounds of evaluation conducted and all the test kits are antibody based kits,” he said.
Segilola disclosed that more than 1.9 million Nigerians were infected with HIV with about 1.1 million on Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART), noting that in order to meet the target for the first 90, Nigeria must have at least 1.71 million people who know their status.
“This means we need to test and identify up to 600, 000 HIV positive persons by December 2020, 16 months from now.
“Obviously, the need for appropriate laboratory diagnostics and laboratory support for clinical decision and monitoring the effectiveness and safety of the regimens remain very important,’’ he stressed.
He noted that in Nigeria, like in many countries, detection of specific antibodies in the blood or other body fluids was the main method and standard procedure for diagnosing HIV infection.
“At one time in this country, several uncontrolled HIV test kits, especially rapid test kits, were used without any regard to quality or following any appropriate testing strategy, which increased the possibility of misdiagnosis of HIV infection,” he said.
Segilola said the federal government considered these practices unacceptable and thus embarked on appropriate evaluation of HIV through rapid test kits.
Earlier in his remarks, the Director General of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), Dr Sani Aliyu, said that HIV testing is often undermined by lack of confidentiality, stigma, shortage of counsellors and proximity to testing centres.
Aliyu, who was represented by his Special Adviser on National Development Division of the Agency, Dr. Daniel Ndukwe, said the test kits have the potential to circumvent these constraints.
