False-Negative Polymerase Chain Reaction-Based Diagnosis of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Type 1 in Children Infected with HIV Strains of African Origin

Point of care testing of HIV in children younger than 18 months with three different HIV virological assays. Experience from a district hospital in a resource-limited setting

“…3 In fact, previous studies have reported false negative HIV DNA PCR tests in children infected by non-B HIV-1 subtypes. [12][13][14][15] In American guidelines for ART in paediatric HIV infection, 16 it is recommended to use HIV RNA PCR assays for confirming negative HIV DNA PCR tests when a non-B HIV-1 subtype is suspected because of the improved sensitivity of the RNA PCR assays for these subtypes. 17 Although HIV DNA PCR tests are able to detect HIV even in patients who are taking ART, 2 they may not be the best option for diagnosing HIV in children younger than 18 months in countries with predominant non-B HIV subtype such as India.…”

Guidelines for the Use of Antiretroviral Agents in Pediatric HIV Infection

“…Current kit configurations for all companies have been designed to detect and quantitate essentially all viral subtypes/clades [34,35]. This is important for many regions of the world with other predominant clades as well as for the U.S. where a small subset of individuals are infected with clades prevalent in other parts of the world [30][31][32]. Choice of HIV RNA assay, particularly for young children, may be influenced by the amount of blood required for the assay.…”

“…Currently available HIV DNA PCR tests are less sensitive for detection for non-subtype B HIV, and false negative HIV DNA PCR assays have been reported in infants infected with non-subtype B HIV [30][31][32].…”

Deutsch-Österreichische Empfehlungen zur HIV-Therapie in der Schwangerschaft und bei HIV-exponierten Neugeborenen – Update 2008

“…Alle positiven HIV-1-Testergebnisse sollten möglichst schnell durch eine zweite Blutprobe bestätigt werden. Es ist zu beachten, dass kommerzielle HIV-PCR-Kits bei ungewöhnlichen HIV-1-Subtypen oder Mosaikviren (Nicht-Subtyp B) versagen können und damit falsch negative Resultate liefern [106]. Bei einem möglicherweise mit einem anderen als Subtyp B infizierten HIV-1-positiven Elternteil (v.a.…”