MOLECULAR FOR EVERYONE – Increasing access to actionable EID and viral load results while the patient is still there

Sponsors: Abbott
Date: Wednesday, 12 December 2018
Time: 12:30-14:00
Location: Niger/Enugu

No invitations necessary; open to all conference registrants

SEMINAR DESCRIPTION:
UNAIDS calls for nothing less than the end of the AIDS epidemic by 2030. The ambitious 90-90-90 goals also call for
rapidly scaling up diagnosis, treatment, and viral suppression, especially in vulnerable populations. Much has been
achieved to reach these goals and molecular platforms have become essential for diagnostics in both the first 90 for
early infant diagnosis, and the third 90 for viral load monitoring.

For infants that acquire HIV, early infant diagnosis with accurate molecular testing can be the difference between life
and death. Long turnaround times from specimen collection to result receipt at the clinic, and an even longer time for result returned to caregivers, contributes to high loss-to-follow-up and many test results
are never received by the mother-baby pair. m-PIMA™ HIV-1/2 Detect provides access to testing and critical results
while mother and child are still present, in time to treat during the 8-12 week window of opportunity.

Viral load monitoring is the cornerstone of the last 90 and is critical to ensure individual treatment response,
effective use of costly second-&-third-line antiretroviral medications, minimal development and spread of resistance.
Countries also face numerous challenges in scaling up HIV VL testing. Abbott introduces m-PIMA™ HIV-1/2 VL, a new POC
viral load monitoring test on the m-PIMA™ platform designed to deliver a viral load result in less than 70 minutes to
help overcome some of those challenges.

In this symposium leading HIV experts provide practical information about their experience implementing the m-PIMA™
technology in clinical settings and the impact on their clinical decision making when actionable early infant diagnosis
and viral load results can be delivered at the point of care, while the patient is still present..

In this symposium, leading experts in the field will share their latest data on POC solutions that address how a true
point-of-care molecular platform can improve timely clinical decision-making capabilities for better patient outcomes
and management.

Presenters:

  • Serge Eholie, Treichville University Teaching Hospital and Medical School of University Felix Houphouet Boigny, Côte
    d’Ivoire
  • Matilu Mwau, Kenya Medical Research Institute
  • Olusegun Busari, Centre for Integrated Health Programs, Nigeria
  • Alcina Zitha, Instituto Nacional de Saúde (INS), – Ministry of Health, Mozambique