Abstract:
Background: The lack of skilled laboratory professionals at health care facilities, particularly in
rural settings, face difficulties in diagnosing HIV infections due to a shortage of laboratory
professionals and other skilled health workers to collect the specimens and conduct testing. The
testing strategies and technology shifted to point of care tests (POC) which were used to
decentralize the testing and include non laboratory professionals.
Objective: This study aimed to assess the performance and associated factors of non-medical
laboratory professionals working on first line HIV rapid testing in government Hospitals in
Jimma zone, Oromia region, south western Ethiopia 2022.
Methods: A hospital based cross-sectional study was conducted from June to August 2022. The
performance of non-medical laboratory workers engaged in rapid HIV testing in Jimma zone
government hospitals was evaluated. Data were entered into Epidata version 3.1 and exported to
SPSS version 23 for analysis. In all cases P-values less than 0.05 was considered as statistically
significant.
Results: Among 215 HIV rapid testing providers evaluated, 198 (92.1%) were able to report
correct results, while 17 (7.9%) had incorrect results. Of those incorrect test results, 7 (3.3%)
and 10 (4.6%) had false positive and false negative reports, respectively. HIV rapid test training
(AOR (95%CI)7.07(1.66,30.12)), kit storage conditions (AOR (95%CI) 4.65(1.21,17.87)),
facility supervision (AOR(95%CI) 8.40 (1.66,42.66)), and work experience ( AOR (95%CI)
8.43(1.85,38.44)) were all taken into account in a multivariable analysis as associated factors for
non-medical laboratory professionals conducting rapid HIV testing at point of care in
government hospitals in the Jimma zone.
Conclusion: In this study, the performance of non-medical laboratory professionals on HIV
rapid testing was high. False negative and false positive results require attention because
misdiagnosis causes community-wide psychological, social, and economic disruptions.
Therefore, based on the discovered data, quick interventions like; extending the EQA
programme to more point-of-care testing areas and provision of updated training is required.
