HIV anonymous seroprevalence survey in Lothian
Research type
Research Study
Full title
HIV anonymous seroprevalence survey in Lothian
IRAS ID
168169
Contact name
Kate Templeton
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
NHS Lothian
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 4 months, 14 days
Research summary
In 2012, 39% of new HIV diagnoses in Lothian were made late, that is at a point after which treatment should have been initiated. A late diagnosis often results from missed opportunities for earlier diagnosis. Benefits of earlier diagnosis include improved clinical outcomes, quality of life and life-expectancy for the individual, reduced rates of onwards transmission, and lower overall costs of treatment and care.
One option to improve HIV diagnosis is to introduce universal opt-out testing to patients seen in defined healthcare settings.
This study aims to identify our undiagnosed HIV prevalence in order to inform us if this would be a reasonable approach in NHS Lothian.
Samples submitted for urea testing in the biochemistry department in the two laboratories (RIE and WGH) would be tested for HIV. All samples from 15-79 year olds would be stored in line with NHS Lothian Bioresource guidance by laboratory staff until 70,000 samples had been collected (estimated to take 6 weeks based on current urea workload). The samples would be collected by existing staff working extra hours on this project. Known positive samples would be excluded.
All samples would be transferred securely to RIE virology laboratory. The positive samples for exclusion would be discarded from this study and the remaining samples would be anonymised. Once anonymised there would be no link to any identifyable information. Processing, testing and analysis of data would all be as an anonymised data set. The samples would then be pooled in pools of 10 by combining 100ul from 10 samples. These pooled samples would be tested for HIV antibody. Any pools containing positive samples would then be split up into original samples and re-tested.
REC name
South East Scotland REC 02
REC reference
15/SS/0031
Date of REC Opinion
27 Feb 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion