1. Piloting the Feasibility and Preliminary Impact of Adding Birth HIV Polymerase Chain Reaction Testing to the Early Infant Diagnosis Guidelines in Kenya.
- Author
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Finocchario-Kessler S, Wexler C, Brown M, Goggin K, Lwembe R, Nazir N, Gautney B, Khamadi S, Babu S, Muchoki E, Maosa N, Mabachi N, Kamau Y, and Maloba M
- Subjects
- Adult, Early Diagnosis, Feasibility Studies, Female, HIV Infections prevention & control, HIV Infections transmission, Humans, Infant, Infant, Newborn, Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical prevention & control, Kenya epidemiology, Pilot Projects, Point-of-Care Systems, Polymerase Chain Reaction, Pregnancy, HIV Infections diagnosis, HIV Testing methods, Infant, Newborn, Diseases diagnosis
- Abstract
Background: In Kenya, standard early infant diagnosis (EID) with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing at 6-week postnatal achieves early treatment initiation (<12 weeks) in <20% of HIV+ infants. Kenya's new early infant diagnosis guidelines tentatively proposed adding PCR testing at birth, pending results from pilot studies., Methods: We piloted birth testing at 4 Kenyan hospitals between November 2017 and November 2018. Eligible HIV-exposed infants were offered both point-of-care and PCR HIV testing at birth (window 0 to <4 weeks) and 6 weeks (window 4-12 weeks). We report the: proportion of infants tested at birth, 6-week, and both birth and 6-week testing; median infant age at results; seropositivity and antiretroviral therapy initiation., Results: Final sample included 624 mother-infant pairs. Mean maternal age was 30.4 years, 73.2% enrolled during antenatal care and 89.9% had hospital deliveries. Among the 590 mother-infants pairs enrolled before 4 weeks postnatal, 452 (76.6%) completed birth testing before 4 weeks, with 360 (79.6%) testing within 2 weeks, and 178 (39.4%) before hospital discharge (0-2 days). Mothers were notified of birth PCR results at a median infant age of 5.4 weeks. Among all 624 enrolled infants, 575 (92.1%) were tested during the 6-week window; 417 (66.8%) received testing at both birth and 6-weeks; and 207 received incomplete testing (93.3% only 1 PCR and 6.7% no PCR). Four infants were diagnosed with HIV, and 3 infants were initiated on antiretroviral therapy early, before 12 weeks of age., Conclusions: Uptake of PCR testing at birth was high and a majority of infants received repeat testing at 6 weeks of age., Competing Interests: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose., (Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.)
- Published
- 2021
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