REDUCING THE COST OF HIV-TESTING THROUGH USE OF THE IGG ANTIBODY CAPTURED PARTICLE ADHERENCE TEST (GACPAT) IN DISTRICT HOSPITALS

Though the World Health Organization (WHO) htrs acted to reduce the pr ice of anti-HIV assays for developing countries, the cost of the large -scale testing to be done may still be prohibitive to the health budge t of these countries. GACPAT, a modified commercial particle assay, is ten times cheaper than the WHO price of ELISAs, In this study GACPAT was introduced in three district hospital laboratories (DHL) in Tanzan ia, and the results compared with those on the same sera in a referenc e laboratory (RL). Sensitivity and specificity were 92.6% and 98.7%, r espectively at DHL, It is concluded that GACPAT is a valid, feasible a nd cheap alternative for ELISA anti-HIV-testing also at district hospi tal laboratory level.