Regional viral load analysis starts in central Cuba

SANTA CLARA, Cuba, Nov 10 (ACN) With the deployment of a Cobas 4800 equipment, the virology and molecular biology laboratory of the province of Villa Clara began the viral load diagnosis using real-time PCR of people with HIV, co-infested with hepatitis C and hemodialysis patients in the central region.

The modern procedure, which makes it possible to establish the amount of viral particles in a plasma sample, will also be used in cases of interest for the gastroenterology service and may later be extended to other diagnoses, according to María de Lourdes Sánchez Alvarez, director of the laboratory.

“Our health institution aims to perform up to 90% of the tests on HIV patients before the end of 2021 using an advanced and highly reliable procedure currently implemented in several provinces,” she pointed out. “Among the possible and future targets is the human papilloma, responsible for most common sexually transmitted infections, and some of its variants that cause genital warts or cervical-uterine cancer, as well as the diagnosis of tumor markers.”

The laboratory, which belongs to the provincial center of Hygiene and Epidemiology, continues to work on the detection of COVID-19, rabies and hepatitis as well as on the molecular diagnosis of different respiratory viruses.