Using a simplified human immunodeficiency virus type 1 p24 antigen assay to diagnose pediatric HIV-infection in Malawi

There is a worldwide need for a pediatric HIV-1 diagnostic test that has a high diagnostic accuracy, is technically simple and cost efficient. The Up24 HIV-1 assay, which requires both the HIV-1 p24 ELISA and the ELAST signal amplification kit, has previously been shown to be a robust tool to diagnose pediatric HIV-1 from dried whole blood spots (DBS) (Cachafeiro et al., JCM 2009;47:459–6213). In order to make the assay more accessible to a resource-limited clinical setting, we eliminated the ELAST system, which simplified the Up24 assay, reduced its cost, and tested the accuracy of the modified assay in a rural Malawian hospital