ArticleClinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America2020
Cost and Impact of Dried Blood Spot Versus Plasma Separation Card for Scale-up of Viral Load Testing in Resource-limited Settings.
Article in Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed.
- Comparison of Cobas Plasma Separation Cards and Whatman filter paper cards versus conventional serum samples for anti-Trypansoma cruzi antibody detection.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2026Article
- An Examination of Perceptions and Usage of Dried Blood Spot Biosampling Technology for HIV Viral Load Collection Among Youth with HIV.AIDS and behavior · 2026Article
- Novel application of dried blood spot tenofovir diphosphate to predict viral suppression in postpartum women with HIV in Malawi.AIDS (London, England) · 2026Article
- HCV RNA quantification using the Cobas Plasma Separation Card as an alternative to EDTA plasma: a prospective multicenter study.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Sensitivity and specificity of dried blood spot samples for hepatitis C virus RNA testing.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Dried Blood Spots and Plasma Separation Cards can Broaden Access to Molecular Testing for HBV, HCV and HIV.Reviews in medical virology · 2025Review
- Dried Spot Paradigm: Problems and Prospects in Proteomics.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Clinical evaluation of patterned dried plasma spot cards to support quantification of HIV viral load and reflexive genotyping.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Acceptability and Feasibility of the Plasma Separation Card for an Integrated Model of Care for HBV and HCV Screening Among People Attending HIV Clinics in Cameroon and Uganda.Journal of epidemiology and global health · 2024Article
- Verification of dried blood spot as a sample type for HIV viral load and early infant diagnosis on Hologic Panther in Zambia.BMC research notes · 2023Article
- Microsampling tools for collecting, processing, and storing blood at the point-of-care.Bioengineering & translational medicine · 2023Review
- Identification of host biomarkers from dried blood spots for monitoring treatment response in extrapulmonary tuberculosis.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Direct Processing and Storage of Cell-Free Plasma Using Dried Plasma Spot Cards.ACS measurement science au · 2022Article
- 903 Protein Saver cards: the best alternative for dried blood spot storage at room temperature for HCV RNA.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- The early-stage comprehensive costs of routine PrEP implementation and scale-up in Zambia.PLOS global public health · 2022Article
- Optimising courier specimen collection time improves patient access to HIV viral load testing in South Africa.African journal of laboratory medicine · 2022Article
- Eliminating HIV transmission through breast milk from women taking antiretroviral drugs.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2021Article
- Bringing Data Analytics to the Design of Optimized Diagnostic Networks in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Process, Terms and Definitions.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Review
- Dried blood spot cards: A reliable sampling method to detect human antibodies against rabies virus.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2020Article
- SNAPflex: a paper-and-plastic device for instrument-free RNA and DNA extraction from whole blood.Lab on a chip · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundRoutine plasma viral load (VL) testing is recommended for monitoring human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients on antiretroviral therapy. In Zambia, VL scale-up is limited due to logistical obstacles around plasma specimen collection, storage, and transport to centralized laboratories. Dried blood spots (DBSs) could circumvent many logistical challenges at the cost of increased misclassification. Recently, plasma separation cards (PSCs) have become available and, though more expensive, have lower total misclassification than DBSs.
methodsUsing a geospatial model created for optimizing VL utilization in Zambia, we estimated the short-term cost of uptake/correct VL result using either DBSs or PSCs to increase VL access on equipment available in-country. Five scenarios were modeled: (1) plasma only (status quo); (2) plasma at high-volume sites, DBS at low-volume sites; (3) plasma at high-volume sites, PSC at low-volume sites; (4) PSC only; (5) DBS only.
resultsScenario 1 resulted in 795 342 correct results due to limited patient access. When allowing for full and partial adoption of dried specimens, access increases by 19%, with scenario 3 producing the greatest number of correct results expected (929 857). The average cost per correct VL result was lowest in the plasma + DBS scenario at $30.90 compared to $31.62 in our plasma + PSC scenario. The cost per correct result of using dried specimens only was dominated in the incremental analysis, due primarily to fewer correct results.
conclusionsAdopting the partial use of dried specimens will help achieve improved VL access for patients at the lowest cost per correct result.
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