Million-dollar grant to roll out HIV test

Burnet Institute in Melbourne has received US$1.6 million from global health organisation UNITAID to kickstart field evaluation studies in India and South Africa for their HIV diagnostic, VISITECT CD4.

VISITECT CD4 is a point-of-care test that determines CD4+ T cell counts in whole blood for assessing when an HIV-positive patient should begin antiretroviral drug treatment.

The grant is part of US$20 million of funding to four developers of easy-to-use HIV diagnostics designed for low-income countries. The aim is to stimulate competition and encourage improved technologies onto the market quickly at more affordable prices.

UNITAID has already committed over US$140 million to portable and easy-to-use HIV diagnostic technology.

The VISITECT CD4 test uses a small amount of blood from a finger prick with results available after 40 minutes at a cost of approximately $5 per test, which is significantly less than existing tests.

CD4 counts are typically measured in laboratories using flow cytometry. As well as being expensive, this procedure can lead to delays between testing and obtaining results, which translates to a significant ‘loss to follow up’ of patients who often do not return to receive life-saving treatment.

“There are about 2.1 million people living with HIV in India and while patients attending many urban centres in India have excellent care, those living in rural areas lack access to affordable HIV monitoring tests,” said Burnet Institute Associate Director and VISITECT CD4 co-developer, Professor Suzanne Crowe.

“The low-cost, point-of-care VISITECT CD4 will greatly improve access to life-saving anti-HIV drugs for potentially hundreds of thousands of HIV-positive people in India. The test will be ready for field trials by July this year.”

The project is being conducted in collaboration with Omega Diagnostics Group PLC, UK; Y.R.G Care, India; The University of Witwatersrand, South Africa; and The Kirby Institute, NSW, Australia.