ICAP at Columbia University has received funding from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to expand a novel HIV testing method that promises to advance efforts for the prevention and treatment of HIV.
As part of the five-year Tracking with Recency Assays to Control the Epidemic (TRACE) project, ICAP will expand the use of a new supplemental rapid HIV test that can distinguish a recent infection, acquired within the last 12 months, from a long-term infection. This test, developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), takes advantage of a specific antibody response that develops after the first several months of HIV infection and therefore is generally not found in blood samples from individuals with a recent infection. The rapid test provides results in a few minutes.
