Stabilizing Blood Collection in Africa

A new vacutainer blood-collection tube is now available in Africa that is designed to stabilize blood collection and improve the accuracy of CD4 (an indication of immune system function) test results for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients. It will also reduce healthcare costs associated with the CD4 testing process in remote areas of Africa, where blood specimens are often exposed to temperatures greater than 20-25º C.

The collection tubes currently used for CD4 testing limit post-collection transport time from two to three days or less at storage conditions of 20-25º C. Testing laboratories often need to repeat collection and testing of CD4 blood specimens due to delayed or poor blood-collection transport conditions at considerable expense. BD Diagnostics (Franklin Lakes, NJ, USA), a segment of Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD), has produced a vacutainer tube that stabilizes CD4 cells for up to three days at 37º C and for up to seven days at 30º C.

CD4 test results help health care professionals to make important treatment decisions in HIV-infected patients, most notably when the disease has progressed to the point where initiation of antiretroviral treatment (ARV) would be beneficial. A recent study comparing the cost-effectiveness of CD4 counting to total lymphocyte-count testing (TLC) and viral load (VL) testing found that in the absence of second line ARV, CD4 tests are a more cost-effective laboratory testing strategy for managing HIV infection.

Results of the study, conducted by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (Baltimore, MD, USA) and supported by a grant from BD through its BD Biosciences segment, were reported at the 14th International AIDS Conference in Toronto (Canada) in August 2006.

BD has entered into an agreement with the William J. Clinton Foundation (New York, NY, USA) to expand accessibility of advanced CD4 cell-counting technology for immune system monitoring of people living with HIV/AIDS. This agreement resulted in deeply discounted pricing for certain developing world countries. "By improving the reliability of HIV testing and the cost-effectiveness of laboratory practices, we move one step closer to our goal of increasing access to care for those HIV/AIDS patients who live in the more remote sub-Saharan areas,” said Krista Thompson, vice president and general manager of HIV/AIDS at BD.



Related Links:
BD Diagnostics
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health