Gashaw Mulatu, Kindie Samuel, Fekadie Minale, Desta Kassu, Wolday Dawit
School of Medical Laboratory Science, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia.
Department of Medical Laboratory Science, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
AIDS Res Treat. 2020 Nov 19;2020:7841352. doi: 10.1155/2020/7841352. eCollection 2020.
Human resources for health-care delivery are essential for attaining global health and development goals. Especially in developing countries, health extension workers are frontline health personnel who can play a key role in preventing and controlling HIV/AIDS. This study aimed to evaluate the performance of health extension workers in HIV-1/2 screening tests. . A comparative cross-sectional study was carried out to evaluate the performance of health extension workers in HIV-1/2 screening tests. Study participants had performed HIV screening tests on the prepared sample panels. Finally, the percentage of accuracy, error rate, sensitivity, specificity, predictive values, and measure of agreement (kappa) were calculated using SPSS version 26.
Totally, 1600 HIV screening tests were performed, and of these, 684 and 235 tests were done by HEWs ( = 15) and laboratory personnel ( = 5), respectively, with three discordant results by HEWs from a single sample panel which was weak reactive for HIV antibody test. The sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV of HIV screening tests by HEWs were 97.4%, 100%, 100%, and 97.22%, respectively, and 100% for all parameters when it is tested by laboratory professionals. The measure of kappa agreement was 0.971 (95% CI, 0.932-1) for HEWs and 1 for laboratory personnel compared with the reference result.
Based on this evidence, we conclude that the potential contribution of HEWs can be invaluable in the expansion of HIV screening tests nationwide to compensate the shortage of laboratory personnel.
卫生保健服务的人力资源对于实现全球卫生与发展目标至关重要。特别是在发展中国家，卫生推广工作者是一线卫生人员，在预防和控制艾滋病毒/艾滋病方面可发挥关键作用。本研究旨在评估卫生推广工作者在艾滋病毒1/2筛查检测中的表现。开展了一项比较性横断面研究，以评估卫生推广工作者在艾滋病毒1/2筛查检测中的表现。研究参与者对准备好的样本面板进行了艾滋病毒筛查检测。最后，使用SPSS 26版计算准确率、错误率、灵敏度、特异性、预测值和一致性度量（kappa）。
总共进行了1600次艾滋病毒筛查检测，其中卫生推广工作者（n = 15）和实验室人员（n = 5）分别进行了684次和235次检测，卫生推广工作者对一个艾滋病毒抗体检测呈弱阳性的单个样本面板有三次不一致的结果。卫生推广工作者进行的艾滋病毒筛查检测的灵敏度、特异性、阳性预测值和阴性预测值分别为97.4%、100%、100%和97.22%，而实验室专业人员检测时所有参数均为100%。与参考结果相比，卫生推广工作者的kappa一致性度量为0.971（95%CI，0.932 - 1），实验室人员为1。
基于这一证据我们得出结论，在全国范围内扩大艾滋病毒筛查检测以弥补实验室人员短缺方面，卫生推广工作者的潜在贡献可能是非常宝贵的。
