Development of the Bio-Bank with well-characteried samples for the Validation of the National HIV Testing Algorithms

Abstract

Based on the World Health Organization recommendation, since 2013, the Ministry of Health has tasked the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE) to develop and evaluated the national HIV testing algorithms to reduce the misdiagnosis of HIV. This study aims to development Bio-Bank with well-characteried samples for the validation of the national HIV testing algorithms. A Bio-bank was created with a total of 800 samples which were collected from different HIV risk groups, both men and women at different ages, from 5 provinces Quang Ninh, Lao Cai, Nghe An, Lang Son and Ha Noi. The collected samples were stored, transported, evaluated to meet the quality requirements, and were tested by the gold standard for HIV diagnosis by the National Reference Laboratory of HIV - ISO 15189 accredited, at NIHE. Samples were well characterized into 488 HIV negative, 297 HIV positive and 15 difficult-to-diagnose samples. The charactered samples were aliquoted in 1ml/cryotubes, labelled with codes, placed in storage boxes with clear diagrams and stored in the refrigerators of -70^oC or lower. In addition, the information of each sample is entered in the software for management Biobank. The well-characteried samples in the Bio-bank are ready for the validation of the national HIV testing algorithms.