Revista de SIDA e investigación clínica

An Overview of Enzyme Immunoassay: The Test Generation Assay in HIV/AIDS Testing

Abstract

Sushanta Kumar Barik, Keshar Kunja Mohanty, Deepa Bisht, Beenu Joshi, Srikanta Jena and Srikanth Prasad Tripathy

In Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) routine surveillance system, it is required to identify the persons infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) recently or showing the clinical stages of AIDS. The sensitive and specific of the assay is essential to detect the HIV infections in early period. Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) screening assay is a type of enzyme immunoassay (EIA) has gone through improvement in several generations effectively narrow the window period. The HIV specific antibodies, viral antigens are produced up to detectable level. The time is variable in different individuals to produce the HIV antibodies in the presence of the host’s immune pressure. This assay was developed from first generation to fifth generation based on its sensitivity and specificity. Due to the false positive reactivity, the accurate sensitive assay is required in field validations and routine testing of HIV infected samples. This EIA is generally used as a screening assay for blood donors and individuals those are at a risk in Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndromes (AIDS). At present, the several types of EIA are the most widely used in serological test for HIV antibodies detection.