Contribution of the classical polymerase chain reaction in the diagnosis of a HIV-1 infected patient in Benin: a case report

Background First ambitious target by 2020 of UNAIDS is that 90% of people living with HIV know their HIV status. In people older than 18 months of age, serological confirmation test is recommended to confirm HIV infection . Case presentation Here we report the case of a patient tested positive with HIV-1, ELISA, Murex ® Ag⁄Ab Combination assay (OD450 = 0.802 and cutoff-OD = 0.279) and negative by using FIRST RESPONSE HIV1-2.O CARD TEST (version 2.0) RAPID HIV CARD TEST. Viral load performed with Cobas ® TaqMan ® 96/Cobas ® Ampliprep ® was 6.49log 10. The virus could be sequenced in partial gag and pol genes and belonged to CRF02_AG clade. Conclusion Conventional PCR is a complementary method for the diagnosis of inconclusive HIV-1 serologies by antibodies.