Early HIV Detection for Better Care

In India, approximately out of 2.35 million people living with HIV (PLHIV), only 1.78 million know their status. Bridging India’s testing gap is essential to strengthen the nation’s infection response and help meet the UNAIDS’ first goal – to diagnose 95% of all HIV-positive patients, which can lead to effective treatment for those diagnosed, prompting viral suppression and an end to new HIV infections by 2030.

Dr. Ishwar Gilada, Consultant in HIV in Infectious Diseases, Unison Medicare and Research Centre Mumbai and President of AIDs Society of India, said, “Across India, the HIV burden is significant. Yet, only 79.4% of the total estimated people living with HIV nationwide have been diagnosed positive. There remains a clear need to bridge the availability of diagnostic solutions so more people can have access to testing services. By using simple and scalable HIV testing offerings like rapid point-of-care tests under robust regulatory processes, we can plug such gaps in testing. Early testing and detection of infection, especially in acute cases where individuals have higher risk of transmission owing to high viral load, is critical. This facilitates timely treatment which can support better patient outcomes, while also curbing the spread of infection.”

Innovations like point-of-care testing, which refers to rapid HIV screening performed in clinical settings by professionals, are crucial to ensure timely infection detection. It also improves access to diagnostics, empowering people to easily know their infection status with accurate results in just 20 minutes. Rapid point-of-care solutions are especially critical in a nation like India, where access to diagnostics is limited in remote or rural areas of the country, and voluntary testing is also low.

Today, point-of-care testing standards continue to evolve, with the introduction of evidence-backed 4th generation technology-based rapid tests, surpassing the previous era of 2nd and 3rd generation tests.These new tests are simple-to-use and identify 28% of infections missed by current 3rd generation rapid tests. The test assists early detection, capable of identifying both HIV antibodies and the antigen, which can appear even 15-25 days after infection.

HIV-positive patients can be quickly identified and linked to care. The chain of transmission can also be broken, which is especially important as acute infections are associated with higher viral load and risk of transmission. Innovation in testing is the key to supporting India’s efforts to reduce the national HIV burden, eliminate stigma, and enhance patient outcomes through access to early and appropriate treatment.