Quality Assurance for Hepatitis C Virus Point-of-Care Diagnostics in Sub-Saharan Africa

Duah, Evans; Mathebula, Evans Mantiri; Mashamba-Thompson, Tivani P.

doi:10.3390/diagnostics13040684

Diagnostics

2023

DOI: 10.3390/diagnostics13040684

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Quality Assurance for Hepatitis C Virus Point-of-Care Diagnostics in Sub-Saharan Africa

Evans Duah

Evans Mantiri Mathebula

Tivani P. Mashamba-Thompson

Abstract: As part of a multinational study to evaluate the Bioline Hepatitis C virus (HCV) point-of-care (POC) testing in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), this narrative review summarises regulatory standards and quality indicators for validating and approving HCV clinical diagnostics. In addition, this review also provides a summary of their diagnostic evaluations using the REASSURED criteria as the benchmark and its implications on the WHO HCV elimination goals 2030.

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2024

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REASSURED evaluation of the Bioline HCV point-of-care testing for diagnosing hepatitis C virus infection in primary healthcare settings of Ghana: a study protocol

Duah,

Ephraim,

Mathebula

et al. 2024

BMJ Open

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IntroductionHepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a silent epidemic that needs a comprehensive and contextualised approach to manage. Access to readily available, affordable and acceptable HCV point-of-care (POC) in vitro diagnostics (IVDs) is equally required to meet the global HCV goals. However, most guidelines for evaluating these IVDs such as the WHO prequalification process and country-specific standards disproportionately focus on diagnostic performance. The real-time connectivity, ease of specimen collection, affordability, sensitivity, specificity, user-friendliness, rapidity and robustness, equipment-free or simplicity and deliverability to end-users (REASSURED) criteria provide a holistic and user-oriented evaluation of the IVDs in the populations they are meant to be used. Therefore, as part of a multinational study in sub-Saharan Africa, we will conduct an evaluation of the Bioline HCV POC test for diagnosing HCV infection in primary healthcare settings of Ghana using the REASSURED criteria.Methods and analysisThis field evaluation will be conducted in three phases. The first phase will use a cross-sectional field evaluation study design to evaluate the diagnostic performance of the Bioline HCV POC test. The second phase will use mixed methods to ascertain operational characteristics and users’ perceptions. In the third phase, a cross-sectional survey will be used to estimate the costs of accessing HCV diagnostics services using three proposed HCV testing models to inform the affordability of the testing pathways and linkage to care in the primary healthcare clinics. This phase will run concurrently with the second phase of the study. Thematic content analysis and quantitative data analysis will be performed using ATLAS.ti V.23.0.6 and StataCorp LLC’s Stata statistical software V.16.0, respectively.Ethics and disseminationThe study protocol has been reviewed and fully approved by the Faculty of Health Sciences Research Ethics Committee, University of Pretoria (281/2023) and the Ghana Health Service Ethics Review Committee (GHS-ERC013/08/23). This diagnostic trial has also been registered in the Pan African Clinical Trial Registry (PACTR202410837698664). The findings of the study will be presented in relevant peer-reviewed journals, at local and international conferences, and to all stakeholders involved.

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REASSURED evaluation of the Bioline HCV point-of-care testing for diagnosing hepatitis C virus infection in primary healthcare settings of Ghana: a study protocol

Duah,

Ephraim,

Mathebula

et al. 2024

BMJ Open

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show abstract

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Quality Assurance for Hepatitis C Virus Point-of-Care Diagnostics in Sub-Saharan Africa

Cited by 1 publication

References 103 publications

REASSURED evaluation of the Bioline HCV point-of-care testing for diagnosing hepatitis C virus infection in primary healthcare settings of Ghana: a study protocol

REASSURED evaluation of the Bioline HCV point-of-care testing for diagnosing hepatitis C virus infection in primary healthcare settings of Ghana: a study protocol

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