HIV point-of-care testing pitfalls

Abstract

When counselling patients for postexposure prophylaxis after sexual exposure, we may need to inform them that the efficacy may be low, especially if the patient also had risks prior to the 72 hours between exposure and treatment. The use of a point-of-care test, as well as fourth generation HIV tests and HIV RNA in combination, can still miss seroconversion in the ‘eclipse’ phase of the infection as these tests are not designed to detect the earliest phase of infection.