Gamuchirai P Gwaza, Monkoe Leqheka, Tsietso Mots'oane, Sabine Dittrich, Kekeletso Kao
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Integrated testing, treatment and care are key strategies for addressing the dual burdens of tuberculosis and HIV. The GeneXpert instrument allows simultaneous HIV and tuberculosis testing, but its utilisation for integrated testing remains suboptimal.
Objective: The study determined the extent to which tuberculosis testing and HIV early infant detection (EID) were integrated on the GeneXpert platform, or the potential for integration at selected health facilities.
Methods: A mixed methods evaluation was conducted using retrospective secondary data analysis of laboratory records from 2017 to 2019, and semi-structured interviews. Data were collected between January 2020 and March 2020 in Lesotho.
Results: Forty-four health staff were interviewed across 13 health facilities: one regional, nine district, and three clinic level. Six were government facilities, six were mission hospitals, and one was a non-profit clinic. All facilities selected had at least one GeneXpert instrument used for tuberculosis or HIV testing; none included simultaneous testing for tuberculosis and HIV. In 2017, the average utilisation rate for the GeneXpert instrument for tuberculosis and EID testing was 63% and 24%, while in 2019, the average utilisation rate was 61% for tuberculosis testing and 27% for EID.
Conclusion: Except for three sites where the testing rates were high, utilisation rates were sufficiently low that all the HIV EID and tuberculosis tests undertaken in 2017 and 2019 could have been performed using only the instruments currently dedicated to tuberculosis testing. There is a missed opportunity for the integration of testing for tuberculosis and HIV on the GeneXpert instrument.
What this study adds: This study adds to the body of evidence on the need for integration of testing and highlights some practical and technical considerations for successful implementation of integrated tuberculosis and HIV testing.
期刊介绍：
The African Journal of Laboratory Medicine, the official journal of ASLM, focuses on the role of the laboratory and its professionals in the clinical and public healthcare sectors,and is specifically based on an African frame of reference. Emphasis is on all aspects that promote and contribute to the laboratory medicine practices of Africa. This includes, amongst others: laboratories, biomedical scientists and clinicians, medical community, public health officials and policy makers, laboratory systems and policies (translation of laboratory knowledge, practices and technologies in clinical care), interfaces of laboratory with medical science, laboratory-based epidemiology, laboratory investigations, evidence-based effectiveness in real world (actual) settings.
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