Cost and Impact of Dried Blood Spot Versus Plasma Separation Card for Scale-up of Viral Load Testing in Resource-limited Settings.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Routine plasma viral load (VL) testing is recommended for monitoring human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients on antiretroviral therapy. In Zambia, VL scale-up is limited due to logistical obstacles around plasma specimen collection, storage, and transport to centralized laboratories. Dried blood spots (DBSs) could circumvent many logistical challenges at the cost of increased misclassification. Recently, plasma separation cards (PSCs) have become available and, though more expensive, have lower total misclassification than DBSs.

Methods

Using a geospatial model created for optimizing VL utilization in Zambia, we estimated the short-term cost of uptake/correct VL result using either DBSs or PSCs to increase VL access on equipment available in-country. Five s

SUBMITTER: Nichols BE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7931834 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature