Human Anti-HIV IgM Detection by the OraQuick ® Rapid HIV 1/2 Antibody Test

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and many public health jurisdictions continue to advocate for the most sensitive rapid HIV test that is available. Currently, the recommendation is to utilize tests that can detect HIV infection biomarkers within 30 days of infection, when initial immune responses are mounted. The infected patient's IgM response is often used to detect acute infection within a 20-25 days window after infection. This requirement applies to lab-based testing with automated analyzers and rapid, point of care (POC) testing used for screening in a non-clinical setting. A recent study has demonstrated that POC tests using a Protein A-based detection system can detect samples with predominantly HIV-1 IgM reactivity (Moshgabadi et al., 2015). The OraQuick ® Rapid HIV-1/2 Antibody Test (OraQuick ®) also uses Protein A as the detection protein in the antibody-binding colloidal gold conjugate, so it is expected that the OraQuick ® Test will also detect samples with predominantly IgM reactivity. This report definitively demonstrates that the OraQuick ® Test can detect IgM antibodies during an acute infection window period of approximately 20-25 days after infection, and is therefore suitable for use in testing environments requiring adherence to current CDC recommendations.