Evaluation of the Upgraded Version 2.0 of the Roche COBAS？ AmpliPrep/COBAS？ TaqMan HIV-1 Qualitative Assay in Central African Children

Several commercially available molecular techniques were developed based on subtype B of HIV-1, which represents only 10% of HIV strains worldwide. Indeed, in sub-Saharan Africa, non-B subtypes of HIV-1 are predominant. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performances of the COBAS？ AmpliPrep/COBAS？ (CAP/CTM) HIV-1 Qualitative assays to detect the broad range of HIV-1 variants circulating in Central Africa and compare to the outgoing CAP/CTM HIV-1 Quantitative test v2.0 (Roche Molecular Systems), chosen as reference gold standard molecular assay