Busy agenda—sad farewell

Medical Laboratory Observer, March, 2007 by C. Anne Pontius

Rapid HIV testing and public health

Devery Howerton, PhD, chair of the CDC's Laboratory Practice Evaluation and Genomics Branch in the Division of Public Health Partnerships, and Duncan MacKellar, MA, MPH, an epidemiologist with the CDC, shared the agency's current data on U.S. HIV infection, which includes the estimate of 252,000 to 312,000 individuals with undiagnosed HIV infections and approximately 40,000 new HIV infections each year. Because of these numbers, the CDC supports the use of CLIA-waived rapid HIV tests. These tests are being performed in diverse settings that range from clinical labs to community-based organizations. The CDC would like to enroll as many testing entities as possible into its voluntary PT program--the Model Performance Evaluation Program (MPEP) for Rapid HIV--that assists the CDC track testing quality. Information about MPEP can be found at www.phppo.cdc.gov/mpep/hiv-lrt.aspx.> C. Anne Pontius, MBA, CMPE, MT(ASCP), is president of Laboratory Compliance Consultants in Raleigh, NC.

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By C. Anne Pontius, MBA, CMPE, MT(ASCP)