Molecular Laboratory Diagnostic Tests For HIV at Dharmais Cancer Hospital

Abstract

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has become a global burden since the beginning of its outbreak, especially in resource-limited settings like Indonesia. The incidence and mortality rate of HIV-related infections have increased over the years, which primarily due to this area having inaccessible HIV testing facilities associated with the highly pathogenic HIV that could hijack immune cells/ CD4 + T cells. Because of this reason, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has developed an ambitious “90-90-90” strategy to eradicate HIV by 2030. Dharmais Cancer Hospital participates in this strategy by providing three tests that make it easier to detect HIV in the early stage and monitor HIV patients regularly. While early HIV detection is made possible by lateral immunochromatography antibody-based detection against HIV, regular HIV monitoring is performed through RT-PCR-based HIV viral load assay and flow-cytometry-based CD4 + count test. Each of these tests is carried out uniquely based on the functions discussed in this study. In addition, the relationship between HIV viral load assay and CD4 + count test was also evaluated in this study. Four different relationship trends were observed, where HIV viral load assay showed to be indirectly or directly proportional to CD4 + count test. The CD4 + count also tend to be variative, where it could increase or decrease as HIV viral load count became undetectable. During this project, most of the research findings showed an indirectly proportional relationship between both tests, proving the efficacy of the ART provided by Dharmais Cancer Hospital.