HIV/Syphilis Duo

A lateral flow test (Device) for rapid, simultaneous and separate detection of antibodies of HIV1/2 and Syphilis in human whole blood/serum/plasma.

Approximately 1.5 million pregnant women are seropositive for HIV, and 900,000 are infected with syphilis annually. Mother-to child transmission (MTCT) of HIV and syphilis remain significant causes of perinatal morbidity and mortality. HIV MTCT can occur during pregnancy, delivery, or breastfeeding. Without any intervention, MTCT rates vary between 20% and 35% in breastfed infants or 15% and 20% for non-breastfed infants. However, these MTCT rates can be reduced to less than 5% upon provision of effective interventions. Untreated maternal syphilis results in significant adverse pregnancy outcomes, such as spontaneous abortion, stillbirth, foetal death, preterm birth, low birth weight, neonatal death and congenital syphilis. In collaboration with WHO regions, WHO has prioritized the elimination of mother to child transmission (EMTCT) of HI. Screening all pregnant women for HIV and syphilis at the first antenatal care visit is recommended by WHO and in nearly all countries of the world. In countries committed to eliminating mother-to-child transmission (EMTCT) of HIV and syphilis, services are being scaled up rapidly. While the testing of pregnant women for HIV is relatively well-resourced, syphilis infected pregnant women often go undiagnosed and untreated. While many countries have antenatal syphilis screening policies, more than 350,000 adverse pregnancy outcomes occur annually due to untreated maternal syphilis, despite the low cost of treatment. Early diagnosis and treatment of both HIV and syphilis in pregnant women has been proven as an effective strategy in the prevention of both adverse outcomes of pregnancy and MTCT. Recent advances in the development of dual HIV/ syphilis rapid tests means that there are new testing options to add to the historical set of screening tools such as laboratory-based non-treponemal tests (e.g. RPR and VDRL) and treponemal tests (e.g. TPPA, TPHA) for syphilis, enzyme immunoassays (EIA) and confirmatory assays for HIV, and single pathogen RDTs for either HIV or for treponema pallidum.