%0 Journal Article
%T Point of Care Technologies for HIV
%A Mohan Kumar Haleyur Giri Setty
%A Indira K. Hewlett
%J AIDS Research and Treatment
%D 2014
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2014/497046
%X Effective prevention of HIV/AIDS requires early diagnosis, initiation of therapy, and regular plasma viral load monitoring of the infected individual. In addition, incidence estimation using accurate and sensitive assays is needed to facilitate HIV prevention efforts in the public health setting. Therefore, more affordable and accessible point-of-care (POC) technologies capable of providing early diagnosis, HIV viral load measurements, and CD4 counts in settings where HIV is most prevalent are needed to enable appropriate intervention strategies and ultimately stop transmission of the virus within these populations to achieve the future goal of an AIDS-free generation. This review discusses the available and emerging POC technologies for future application to these unmet public health needs. 1. Introduction Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a disease of the human immune system caused by the HIV [1] which destroys CD4+ T lymphocytes of the immune system that prevent infections. AIDS is one of the most serious global health problems of unprecedented dimensions and is one of the greatest modern pandemics. At the end of 2010, an estimated 34 million people were living with HIV globally, including 3.4 million children under 15 years of age. There were 2.7 million new HIV infections in 2010, including 390£¿000 among children less than 15 years [2]. The annual number of people newly infected with the HIV has declined 20% from the global epidemic peak in 1998, mainly due to tremendous progress in diagnostics and treatment. Several diagnostic technologies have emerged with high specificity, sensitivity, and accuracy to detect HIV infection. HIV testing plays an important role in HIV prevention in that knowledge of HIV status has both individual and public health benefits. Early and accurate detection of HIV infection is important to public health because this stage is characterized by high infectiousness and transmissibility of the virus. The individual benefits of HIV testing are primarily associated with individuals accessing care and treatment. Individuals entering care and treatment have a substantial reduction in adverse health outcomes and increased life expectancy. The past decades have witnessed enormous technological improvements towards the development of simple, cost-effective, and accurate rapid diagnostic tests for detection and identification of infectious pathogens. There is growing demand within the global health community to find ways to simplify and improve the efficiency of diagnostics for HIV/AIDS without diminishing the quality of
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/art/2014/497046/