Performance evaluation programs for determining HIV-1 viral loads, testing for HIV p24 antigen, and identifying Mycobacterium tuberculosis using nucleic acid amplification tests.

CDC's Division of Laboratory Systems, Public Health Practice Program Office, is implementing three new laboratory performance evaluation (PE) programs. The first assesses the performance of laboratories that perform tests to determine the viral RNA copy number (viral load) in the blood of persons infected with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1); the second assesses the performance of laboratories that perform HIV p24 antigen (Ag) testing; and the third assesses the performance of laboratories that perform nucleic acid amplification (NAA) tests for Mycobacterium tuberculosis.