Assessing Very Early Infant Diagnosis Turnaround Times: Findings from a Birth Testing Pilot in Lesotho
Table 1
Turnaround time (in days) for infants born and tested at cohort study facilities at birth and six weeks and infants born at noncohort study facilities tested at six weeks between January–June 2016.
Blood draw to receipt at NRL+
Receipt of specimen at NRL to testing at NRL
Testing at NRL to result receipt at health facility
Result receipt at facility to receipt by caregiver
Blood draw to receipt by caregiver
Infant age at receipt by caregiver
Result receipt by caregiver to treatment initiation
Blood draw to ART initiation
Infant age at treatment initiation
Birth (cohort study facilities only)
All infants, ,
40
48
43
60
54
61
Median time (IQR)
22.5
7.0
15.0
14.5
76.5
78.0
(19.0–30.0)
(3.5–10.5)
(10.0–27.0)
(4.0–33.5)
(48.0–98.0)
(48.0–102.0)
All infants, range
3.0–64.0
2.0–64.0
0–210.0
0–97.0
36.0–164
32.0–174.0
HIV-infected infant ()
25.0
5.0
7.0
1.0
38.0
43.0
0
38.0
43.0
6-week DNA-PCR (cohort study facilities)
All infants,
44
53
48
58
46
58
Median time (IQR)
21.0
6.0
15.5
13.0
63.0
105.5
(14.0–31.5)
(3.0–8.0)
(7.5–26.5)
(3.0–28.0)
(52.0–72.0)
(94.0–118.0)
All infants, range
1.0–77.0
0–26.0
0–65.0
0–99.0
35.0–158.0
62.0–201.0
HIV-infected infant ()
28.0
8.0
8.0
5.0
49.0
102.0
0
49.0
102.0
6-week DNA-PCR (noncohort study facilities)
All infants,
49
37
18
27
30
30
Median time (IQR)
17.0
6.0
15.0
17.0
70.0
111.5
(11.0–27.0)
(4.0–9.0)
(8.0–21.0)
(8.0–31.0)
(56.0–74.0)
(104.0–121.0)
All infants, range
0–57.0
0–78.0
7.0–66.0
0–96.0
24.0–154.0
72.0–199.0
HIV-infected infants,
3
2
1
2
2
2
1
1
1
Median time (IQR)
18.0
10.0
15.0
7.0
49.0
94.5
10.0
66.0
112.0
(11.0–24.0)
(5.0–15.0)
(1.0–13.0)
(42.0–56.0)
(87.0–102.0)
HIV-infected infants, range
11.0–24.0
5.0–15.0
—
1.0–13.0
42.0–56.0
87.0–102.0
—
—
—
number of infants contributing to each step varied as some dates were not available to calculate all steps for each infant. +All values are presented in days except for the number of infants contributing to each step (); ART: antiretroviral therapy; IQR: interquartile range; : number; NRL: National Reference Laboratory.
