Skip Navigation


Journal of Tropical Pediatrics Advance Access originally published online on June 11, 2007
Journal of Tropical Pediatrics 2007 53(5):355-358; doi:10.1093/tropej/fmm032
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
53/5/355    most recent
fmm032v1
Right arrow E-letters: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when E-letters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Related articles in J Trop Pediatr
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Sivapalasingam, S.
Right arrow Articles by Essajee, S.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Sivapalasingam, S.
Right arrow Articles by Essajee, S.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author [2007]. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Brief Reports

A Reverse Transcriptase Assay for Early Diagnosis of Infant HIV Infection in Resource-limited Settings

Sumathi Sivapalasingama, Usha Patelb, Vincenza Itria, Maura Lavertya, Kishorchandra Mandaliyab, Fred Valentinea and Shaffiq Essajeeb,c

aCenter for AIDS Research, Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, New York University School of Medicine New York, NY
bAIDS Research and Family Care Clinic, Coast Province General Hospital, Mombasa, Kenya
cDepartment of Pediatrics, Division of Infectious Diseases, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY

Correspondence: Sumathi Sivapalasingam, MD, New York University School of Medicine, 550 First Avenue, C&D Building, Rm 558, New York, NY 10016. E-mail < sumathi.sivapalasingam{at}gmail.com>.


  Abstract

Early diagnosis of pediatric HIV infection is confounded by persistence of maternal antibodies until 18 months, necessitating the use of expensive assays such as HIV-1 DNA PCR, an untenable option in resource-limited settings. This is the first report of a low-cost, commercial, reverse transcriptase (RT) assay for the diagnosis of HIV-1 infection in infants. RT assays were performed on 42 samples from 30 HIV-exposed Kenyan infants under 15 months of age. When correlated with serologic testing conducted after 18 months, the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of the RT assay were 92%, 93%, 87% and 96%. A low-cost assay for infant HIV diagnosis is urgently needed, and these results merit further evaluation.

Key Words: HIV • reverse transcriptase • diagnosis • infant • Africa.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?

Related articles in J Trop Pediatr:

In this Issue October 2007

J Trop Pediatr 2007 53: i. [Full Text]  





Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.