Mwangi Joseph1,2, lihana Rapahel1, Joyceline KINYUA1. EARLY DIAGNOSIS OF HIV IN AFRICA: IMPLICATIONS ON POLICY AND NEW RESEARCH FRONTIERS Mwangi Joseph1,2, lihana Rapahel1, Joyceline KINYUA1. 1Kenya Medical Research Institute. 2Institute of Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology. Introduction. HIV;HBV;HCV Infants DBS Blood Donor Samples ELISA Rapid tests hemagglutination NEW TECHNOLOGIES IMPROVES DIAGNOSIS & EFFICIENCY The importance of HIV Testing programs continue to gain momentum by day. Fundamentally, HIV testing, beyond being the entry point to care and treatment is also crucial for prevention. Currently, testing is the fulcrum for a number of recent approaches including; treatment for prevention, test and treat, and the 90,90,90 UNAIDS Goal. It is estimated that only 50% of people living with HIV have access to HIV tests, and only 25% of people on ART have access to VL (1). Although HIV treatment programs are scaling up rapidly, coverage of essential diagnostic testing remains low: 61% for CD4, 26% for EID and 25% for VL .(2) Objective: This study was carried out to examine opportunities in infant HIV diagnosis and blood transfusion in order to build on the strength to improve prevention and management of interventions Patients and methods. The study involved blood donors and HIV exposed infants tested through the early infant diagnosis program. While nested and automated genomic platforms were used, in addition part of the samples were tested Using ELISA; Particle Hemagglutination ; Rapid test and PCR. Results Conclusions Window period donation for HBV and HCV were detected in the study Variations in performance characteristics of the kits used indicate the need for careful selection of test methods Significant gains have been made in EID improving HIV detection. Great reduction in positivity rate in EID indicator gains in PMTCT New technologies have improved diagnostic leading to early interventions Use of various testing platforms and strategies in HIV programming show improvement in testing providing diagnostic insight that can be replicated in research and diagnostic management of emerging and re-emerging infections. Research to identify barriers to testing uptake and improve services is required References global forecasts of diagnostic demand for 2014-2018 http://www.who.int/hiv/amds/diagnostic_meeting2015_concept-note.pdf . 9th Oct 2015 Project to Accelerate Access to Innovative Point of Care HIV Diagnostics: CD4, Early Infant Diagnosis, and Viral Load.http://www.unicef.org/aids/files/POC_FinalProjectBriefJun2012.pdf.Acessed 9th Oct 2015