SynthesisJournal of the International AIDS Society2017
To err is human, to correct is public health: a systematic review examining poor quality testing and misdiagnosis of HIV status.
Synthesis in Journal of the International AIDS Society, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
42 citing papers in PubMed, 72 citations in OpenAlex.
- Community-based HIV self-testing: a cluster-randomised trial of supply-side financial incentives and time-trend analysis of linkage to antiretroviral therapy in Zimbabwe.BMJ global health · 2021Trial
- Reevaluating late HIV diagnosis incorporating recent infection evidence: a population-based study in Southwest China (2020-2023).BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Human Immunodeficiency Virus Misdiagnosis in a Patient Presenting with Clinical Features of AIDS in Malawi: A Case Report.Malawi medical journal : the journal of Medical Association of Malawi · 2025Article
- ViraLite: An Ultracompact HIV Viral Load Self-Testing System with Internal Quality Control.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- A methodological review of patient healthcare-seeking journeys from symptom onset to receipt of care.BMJ global health · 2025Review
- Misclassification of HIV infection status among serologically diverse populations in Nigeria: implications for test and treat program.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Factors associated with accuracy of rapid HIV test performance in the Eastern Cape, South Africa.Southern African journal of HIV medicine · 2025Article
- People Who Self-Reported Testing HIV-Positive but Tested HIV-Negative: A Multi-Country Puzzle of Data, Serology, and Ethics, 2015-2021.Tropical medicine and infectious disease · 2024Article
- Brief Report: Self-Reported HIV-Positive Status but Subsequent HIV-Negative Test Results in Population-Based HIV Impact Assessment Survey Participants-11 Sub-Saharan African Countries, 2015-2018.Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999) · 2024Article
- Evaluating the sensitivity and specificity of Determine™ HIV-1/2 rapid test using a 0.01M phosphate-buffered saline produced at the Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia for the diagnosis of HIV.Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene · 2024Article
- Evaluation of the performance of a qPCR-based assay for HIV-1 viral load determination.PloS one · 2024Article
- Country adoption of WHO 2019 guidance on HIV testing strategies and algorithms: a policy review across the WHO African region.BMJ open · 2023Article
- Temporal discrepancies in "rapid" HIV testing: explaining misdiagnoses at the point-of-care in Zimbabwe.BMC infectious diseases · 2023Article
- Ensuring diagnostic testing accuracy for patient care and public health- COVID-19 testing scale-up from an EQA provider's perspective.PLOS global public health · 2023Article
- Article
- Repeated false-negative HIV rapid test results in a patient presenting to care with advanced HIV disease: A case report.IDCases · 2023Article
- Using trajectory modeling of spatio-temporal trends to illustrate disparities in COVID-19 death in flint and Genesee County, Michigan.Spatial and spatio-temporal epidemiology · 2022Article
- Implementation of Novel Quality Assurance Program for Hepatitis C Viral Load Point of Care Testing.Viruses · 2022Article
- Testers' compliance to the quality standards of HIV rapid testing services in Primary Health Care Facilities in Makete District, Tanzania.African health sciences · 2022Article
- Trajectory Modeling of Spatio-Temporal Trends in COVID-19 Incidence in Flint and Genesee County, Michigan.Annals of epidemiology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 5 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
introductionIn accordance with global testing and treatment targets, many countries are seeking ways to reach the "90-90-90" goals, starting with diagnosing 90% of all people with HIV. Quality HIV testing services are needed to enable people with HIV to be diagnosed and linked to treatment as early as possible. It is essential that opportunities to reach people with undiagnosed HIV are not missed, diagnoses are correct and HIV-negative individuals are not inadvertently initiated on life-long treatment. We conducted this systematic review to assess the magnitude of misdiagnosis and to describe poor HIV testing practices using rapid diagnostic tests.
methodsWe systematically searched peer-reviewed articles, abstracts and grey literature published from 1 January 1990 to 19 April 2017. Studies were included if they used at least two rapid diagnostic tests and reported on HIV misdiagnosis, factors related to potential misdiagnosis or described quality issues and errors related to HIV testing.
resultsSixty-four studies were included in this review. A small proportion of false positive (median 3.1%, interquartile range (IQR): 0.4-5.2%) and false negative (median: 0.4%, IQR: 0-3.9%) diagnoses were identified. Suboptimal testing strategies were the most common factor in studies reporting misdiagnoses, particularly false positive diagnoses due to using a "tiebreaker" test to resolve discrepant test results. A substantial proportion of false negative diagnoses were related to retesting among people on antiretroviral therapy.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.