Effectiveness of Early Infant Diagnosis (EID) in Detecting the Serostatus of HIV-Exposed Infants and Children.

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: Although interventions to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV infection are being increasingly implemented as a part of national guideline, the prevalence of pediatric HIV remains high. There is remarkable increase in survival if HIV-infected children have access to early infant diagnosis (EID) and treatment.

METHODS: The study was conducted in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Medical College, Kolkata from July 2011 to February 2014 after obtaining approval from the institutional ethics committee. All the infants of HIV-positive mothers who came for EID between 6 weeks to 18 months of age during the study period were included in the study. A total number of 151 infants were included in the study and divided into Group A and B according to the time of first testing. It was a prospective observational longitudinal study. Data were collected from the EID register of PPTCT unit Medical College Kolkata. EID was done as laid out in the pediatric ART (anti-retroviral therapy) guidelines of the National AIDS Control Organization.

RESULTS: Effectiveness of EID is judged by the corroboration of results at 6 week, 6 and 18 months. Comparing the results in group A, we found that 10.26, 8.41, and 7.29 % were positive at 6 weeks, 6 and 18 months, respectively, and with p value of 0.5828 the differences were not statistically significant. In group B, we observed that 47.06 and 45.45 % were positive at 6 and 18 months, respectively. Analysis revealed a p value of 0.9072 indicating no significant statistical difference between the results of testing in different periods. This reflects a good correlation between the 6 weeks, 6 and 18 months value, thus establishing the integrity of the EID.

CONCLUSION: Ultimate integrity of the PPTCT is judged by testing the child. EID is a novel procedure which aims at earlier diagnosis and initiation of treatment in the children.