Evaluation of a 2-minute anti-human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) test using the autologous erythrocyte agglutination technique with populations differing in HIV prevalence

Abstract

A total of 1,800 blood specimens (1,000 from healthy blood donors, 300 from patients with sexually transmitted diseases, and 500 from intravenous drug users) were simultaneously tested with anti-human immunodeficiency virus enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits and a newly developed 2-min test for anti-human immunodeficiency virus based on the principle of autologous erythrocyte agglutination (AGEN Biomedical Limited). We found that AGEN's rapid test was as sensitive and specific as the other ELISA kits.