Faye B*, Dieng FB, Charlebois R, Sarr H, Diouf SG, Diagne MM, Sembène M and Dièye A
Accurate quantification of HIV-1 viral load (VL) is crucial for assessing infection stage and efficacy of antiretroviral therapy (ART). Despite recommendations for measuring VL amongst people living with HIV, the accessibility and availability of this parameter remain low in resource-limited settings, primarily due to the lack of qualified human resources and necessary reagents. Solutions must be found to help developing countries attain the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) 90-90-90 targets for 2020. This study was designed to compare the quantification of HIV-1 VL between two reverse transcriptase real-time PCR techniques: RocheCOBAS® AmpliPrep/ COBAS®TaqMan®HIV-1v2.0 and Abbott m2000sp/m2000rt. To conduct the comparison, 231 samples for VL were assessed. Samples were stratified according to the following VL intervals:<3 Log10; 3 Log10-4 Log10; 4 Log-5 Log10; 5 Log10-6 Log10 and > 6 Log10 copies/ml. The Bland-Altman method and the Bland-Altman plot were used for the comparison of the two techniques. The concordance varies from 92 to 98% depending on the VL interval studied. Our results showed that these two techniques give similar results and that all observed variations are under 0.5 Log10 copies/ml, which is considered a significant variation for treatment failure. This concordance was confirmed by the overall VL comparison obtained using linear regression. The linear regression shows a correlation with R2 = 0.83 and a 95% agreement between the two techniques. Our results show that these techniques are interchangeable and thus, in some contexts, would improve the availability of VL to help achieve the UNAIDS third "90" target set for 2020.
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