59 Where are the viral loads? Searching for additional HIV laboratory results in South Africa’s National Health Laboratory Services Database

Abstract

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: Guidelines suggest people with HIV (PWH) receive routine HIV viral load (VL) testing at least yearly and upon diagnosis with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). Many PWH and MDR-TB in South Africa seem to be missing VL results. This study’s goal was to find results which may be available from the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS). METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: We abstracted HIV laboratory results, specifically baseline VL and CD4 count and VL at MDR-TB cure, from PWH enrolled in a cluster-randomized clinical trial of nurse case management for PWH and MDR-TB in South Africa who were cured of MDR-TB. For any participant missing one or more of these results, we thoroughly searched the electronic NHLS database using multiple separate searches varying terms including patient name, surname, date of birth, medical record number where available, and South African identification number. Returned results were compared to results abstracted from the parent study and any additional results were entered into the parent study data. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Of 929 PWH cured of MDR-TB, 879 (94.6%) were missing at least one expected VL or CD4 result in the parent study database. Though our search strategy was successful in identifying participants and returning CD4 and VL results, we rarely found additional results that were not already in the parent study database. Following the search and entry of the few additional results retrieved, 116 (12.4%) participants were missing a baseline CD4, 309 (33.3%) missing baseline VL, and 385 (41.4%) missing VL at MDR-TB cure, representing 572 individuals or 61.6% of participants with at least one unavailable result. This high level of unavailability of key laboratory results used to guide MDR-TB and HIV treatment suggests that these tests were either not ordered, not collected, or not completed due to electronic gatekeeping at NHLS. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE: Unknown CD4 count or VL leaves PWH open to including MDR-TB treatment failure and death. Our search strategy found additional results but was time-consuming and cumbersome. Limitations included lack of information on why laboratory results were missing, which limits our ability to make recommendations for better collection and reporting.