Task shifting for point-of-care early infant diagnosis

To decentralize point-of-care early infant diagnosis (POC EID), task shifting to cadres such as nurses is important. However, this should not compromise the quality of testing by generating high rates of internal quality control (IQC) failures and long result turnaround times. This study used data from a POC EID project in Zimbabwe to compare IQC rates and result return to caregivers for samples run on a POC EID technology (Alere q HIV ½ Detect) between nurses and laboratory-trained personnel to assess effects of task shifting on quality of testing.