Field evaluation and implementation of rapid diagnostic test for the diagnosis of syphilis in people living with HIV/AIDS.
Wellcome Trust
Centro Internacional de Entrenamiento e Investigaciones Medicas
Syphilis remains as a public health concern despite effective treatment, especially in people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) since central nervous system and ocular involvement is more frequent. Syphilis screening is an integral component of HIV care, but its coverage is suboptimal and current diagnostic approach in Colombia relies on at least two subsequent laboratory tests, requiring several visits to the clinic, hindering timely treatment. Rapid diagnostic tests (RDT) for syphilis do not require laboratory facilities and can be performed at the point of care, shortening the time to treatment, as demonstrated in antenatal care programs. Even though, diagnostic performance of RDT is good enough for their implementation in antenatal care and sexually transmitted infections clinics, they have not been sufficiently studied in PLWHA. Therefore, this project intent to evaluate the clinical utility of RDT, the first phase is a cross-sectional design to evaluate the diagnostic performance of RDT for syphilis in this population, and the second phase corresponds to a before and after design, to evaluate the impact of the implementation of this tests on the care of HIV patients with syphilis.
4.1 Discovery and preclinical testing of markers and technologies