BackgroundAmong Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infected people in Ghana, the prevalence of HIV-2 is low compared with HIV-1. There is a paucity of reliable data on HIV-2 prevalence in Ghana which may justify targeted routine HIV-2 testing for all people for whom HIV-1 testing is required. Prevention and treatment of AIDS depends on accurate laboratory diagnosis of HIV infection. HIV Rapid diagnostic Test (RDT) kits are the preferred preliminary screening assay type in many

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... ed countries. The study sought to determine whether the RDT kits used in screening for HIV positive patients are missing capturing HIV-2 in the patients.MethodsVenous blood was aseptically collected from 100 HIV-1 infected patients reporting to the Fevers Unit of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital for antiretroviral therapy. Using Plasma the HIV 1 status was reassessed with Oraquick® Advance Rapid HIV-1/2 kit, First Response HIV-1-2 RDT kit and Multisure MP Diagnostics, the RDTs in use at the care and support centre. ResultsOf the 100 patients previously determined as HIV-1 positive at the HIV Care and Support Centre, 88 tested positive for HIV-1, 10 tested positive for HIV-1 & 2, 2 tested negative and no patient tested positive for HIV-2 using First Response RDT kit and Multisure RDT kit, and OraQuick kit which gave qualitative results of 98 positives and 2 negatives. The twelve (12) samples with different study results from the known, prior to the study(10 HIV 1& 2 and 2 negative), were subjected to confirmatory test at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) with INNO-LIA HIV Score kit, a standard confirmatory protocol. When INNO-LIA HIV Score kit was used as confirmatory test for the 12 samples, 9 tested positive for HIV-1, one patient tested negative and two patients tested positive for HIV-2.ConclusionAll the rapid diagnostic test kits in use missed classifying the two samples correctly as HIV-2 infection.