LabCorp Launches Enhanced HIV Screening Assay

Revolutionary Procedure Helps Identify Newly Infected HIV Patients Up to Six Weeks Sooner than Standard HIV Antibody Screening

Burlington, NC - Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (LabCorp) announced the introduction of an enhanced HIV Screening Assay to identify individuals with primary HIV infection.

Primary or acute HIV infection is that period following recent infection when an individual has not yet developed detectable levels of HIV antibodies. During this window period, infected individuals are considered significant contributors to the spread of HIV as they tend to have very high levels of the HIV virus, are very infectious, and are often not aware of their HIV status. LabCorp's enhanced HIV Screening Assay provides for automatic HIV nucleic acid testing (NAT) on antibody-negative samples utilizing a proprietary pooling method.

"Mounting data suggest that a significant proportion of HIV transmissions occur during this highly viremic, acute stage of infection," said Myla Lai- Goldman, MD, Executive Vice President, Chief Scientific Officer and Medical Director of LabCorp. "There are nearly one million people in the US infected with HIV, with approximately 40,000 new infections each year. Earlier diagnosis leads to earlier referral for appropriate care and preservation of health. And, increased awareness of infection status combined with appropriate preventive counseling may significantly reduce the unknowing spread of infection."

Evidence is building that combining antibody screening with HIV NAT using pooled samples can be an effective way to identify primary HIV infection. A one year pilot study conducted by the University of North Carolina in collaboration with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NC Study) showed that testing HIV serologically negative individuals using NAT can help in the early identification of primary HIV infection. The NC Study performed NAT in pools of 90 samples on more than 100,000 HIV serologically negative samples tested by the state, with a positivity rate of approximately one in 5,000 screened samples.

SOURCE: Laboratory Corporation of America