LAUSR

Accurate monitoring of epidemics is a key strategy for the control of human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1) infection. To delineate the characteristic of newly-diagnosed cases of HIV-1 infection, we assessed the proportion of recent HIV-1 infections using a recent infection testing algorithm (RITA). In 2015, 248 cases were newly diagnosed with HIV infection in Reginal Hospital Koforidua, Ghana. Of these, 234 cases (94.4%) were infected with HIV-1 only, four (1.6%) were infected with HIV-2 only, and 10 (4.0%) were co-infected with HIV-1 and HIV-2. All the HIV-1 single seropositive samples were applied to HIV-1 LAg avidity assay for RITA. Our analysis revealed that 18 cases (7.7%) were determined as recent infections, indicating that early diagnosis has not been achieved in Ghana. This is the first report assessing the proportion of recent infections in Ghana using a biomarker approach. Accumulation of these data would contribute to accurate estimation of HIV-1 incidence and prevalence in Ghana.