Correspondence Address:
Pathum Sookalomdee
TWS Primary Care Center, Bangkok
Thailand

Full Text

Sir,

The anti-HIV serology testing is the widely used immunological test in the present clinical practice. This test is considered a sensitive test and there must be a special process for this test. A specific requirement is the pre- and post-test counseling. The patient is freely allowed to have the blood test. The audit of HIV testing is recommended as a method for improve of quality in clinical service. [1] Here, the authors retrospective review the record on a serological test of cases receiving anti-HIV serological test in a medical center in Thailand. The special focus is on the follow-up serological test of the case with window period anti-HIV seronegative. Within a 1 year record, there are 80 cases with seronegative anti-HIV test result and within the window period anti-HIV. All of these cases got the posttest counseling. Of interest, only 50 cases (62.5%) had the follow-up visit to get retest for anti-HIV. It seems that there is a concern on the problem of loss of follow-up serological test of the case with window period anti-HIV seronegative. According to the recent report by Taylor et al., [2] "the probability of a false-negative result is 0.01 at 80 days' postexposure for third-generation tests and at 42 days for fourth-generation tests," hence, it is no doubt that maintenance of follow-up visit might be the aim for posttest counseling for any cases with window period anti-HIV seronegative test result.

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Conflicts of interest

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