liability for all losses, costs, claims, damages or expenses arising out of or connected with the use of an SMI or any information contained therein. If alterations are made to an SMI, it must be made clear where and by whom such changes have been made. The evidence base and microbial taxonomy for the SMI is as complete as possible at the time of issue. Any omissions and new material will be considered at the next review. These standards can only be superseded by revisions of the standard, legislative action, or by NICE accredited guidance. SMIs are Crown copyright which should be acknowledged where appropriate. Suggested citation for this document Public Health England. (YYYY <tab+enter>). HIV screening and confirmation. UK Standards for Microbiology Investigations. V11 Issue #.# <tab+enter>. /. Scope of document Type of specimen Whole blood, serum / plasma, Note: Venous blood is the preferred specimen for HIV testing. Dried blood and dried plasma spots have been validated and are commonly used for HIV testing and monitoring 1,2. This algorithm outlines the laboratory based detection and exclusion of HIV infection using serology and nucleic acid based diagnostics. It should be noted that this algorithm is not applicable to investigation of potential mother to child transmission of HIV in children under 18 months of age. Laboratory based HIV diagnostic algorithms should provide appropriate certainty for all patient groups regarding exclusion and detection of HIV-1 and 2 infections in all clinical settings, and should also distinguish HIV-1 from HIV-2 infection. Refer to for information regarding good laboratory practice in serological testing. This SMI should be used in conjunction with other SMIs. Definitions For all antigen, antibody and NAATs testing, the following definitions apply: During testing process Reactive Initial internal stage positive result pending confirmation. – Not-reactive Initial internal stage negative result. – Indeterminate/ equivocal Result is not clearly positive or negative. Further testing – is required. This is used for preliminary reports. Reporting stage
liability for all losses, costs, claims, damages or expenses arising out of or connected with the use of an SMI or any information contained therein. If alterations are made to an SMI, it must be made clear where and by whom such changes have been made. The evidence base and microbial taxonomy for the SMI is as complete as possible at the time of issue. Any omissions and new material will be considered at the next review. These standards can only be superseded by revisions of the standard, legislative action, or by NICE accredited guidance. SMIs are Crown copyright which should be acknowledged where appropriate. Suggested citation for this document Public Health England. (YYYY <tab+enter>). HIV screening and confirmation. UK Standards for Microbiology Investigations. V11 Issue #.# <tab+enter>. /. Scope of document Type of specimen Whole blood, serum / plasma, Note: Venous blood is the preferred specimen for HIV testing. Dried blood and dried plasma spots have been validated and are commonly used for HIV testing and monitoring 1,2. This algorithm outlines the laboratory based detection and exclusion of HIV infection using serology and nucleic acid based diagnostics. It should be noted that this algorithm is not applicable to investigation of potential mother to child transmission of HIV in children under 18 months of age. Laboratory based HIV diagnostic algorithms should provide appropriate certainty for all patient groups regarding exclusion and detection of HIV-1 and 2 infections in all clinical settings, and should also distinguish HIV-1 from HIV-2 infection. Refer to for information regarding good laboratory practice in serological testing. This SMI should be used in conjunction with other SMIs. Definitions For all antigen, antibody and NAATs testing, the following definitions apply: During testing process Reactive – Initial internal stage positive result pending confirmation. Not-reactive – Initial internal stage negative result. Indeterminate/ equivocal – Result is not clearly positive or negative. Further testing is required. This is used for preliminary reports. Reporting stage