The Federal Ministry of Health has approved the Insti HIV ½, Insti Multiplex Dual HIV1/2 and Syphilis antibody rapid tests kits as a first-line kit in the national HIV testing algorithm.
The National Coordinator of the National AIDS, STI and Hepatitis Control Programme, Segilola Araoye, disclosed the approval while giving a report of the laboratory evaluation of the tests kits in Abuja.
He said the result of the evaluation showed that Insti HIV1/2 has specificity and sensitivity of 99.7% respectively while Insti multiplex HIV 1/2 Syphilis antibody has sensitivity and specificity of 100% respectively.
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“The term specificity is the ability of a test to correctly exclude individuals who do not have a given disease or disorder while sensitivity is the ability of a test to correctly identify people who have a given disease or disorder,” he explained.
Araoye recalled that several uncontrolled HIV tests kits were used previously in the country with little or no quality, following this he said it was a necessity for the ministry to embark on appropriate evaluation of HIV (rapid) test kits.
He added that it was vital to conduct accurate diagnosis of HIV early, to aid the effectiveness of intervention for the control of the epidemic.
At the event, Chairman Technical Committee for Evaluation of HIV Testing Technologies, Manason Rubainu, said the test kits was in line with the requirements for first-line testing of HIV and syphilis.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the HIVST is an HIV self-testing approach, where a person collects his or her own specimen (oral fluid or blood) and then performs an HIV test and interprets the result.