Testing for HIV and HCV: What’s Current and What’s Coming
Bernard M. Branson, MD
Director, Scientific Affairs LLC
Atlanta, GA
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Dr. Bernard Branson has been involved with HIV testing for more than 30 years. He was the lead author of CDC’s 2006 revised recommendations for HIV screening in health care settings and, most recently, the June 2014 HIV testing recommendations that updated the U.S. laboratory HIV testing algorithm for the first time in 25 years. He is a graduate of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and completed his postgraduate clinical training at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Branson joined the CDC in 1990 and served as Associate Director for Laboratory Diagnostics in CDC’s Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention for eleven years prior to his retirement in October 2014. Since then, Dr. Branson has provided expert consultation on HIV diagnostics, developed continuing medical education activities, and devoted his efforts to promoting the adoption of biomedical interventions such as treatment to achieve HIV viral suppression and pre-exposure prophylaxis.
At the completion of this educational session, learners will:
- Understand and be able to compare the relative sensitivity of FDA-approved HIV tests during seroconversion.
- Be aware of the recommended sequence of tests for the diagnosis of HIV and active HCV infections and recognize how long-term viral suppression and PrEP might affect diagnostic test results.
- Appreciate the benefits of screening for undiagnosed HIV and HCV infections and for acute HIV infection.
- Describe new HIV tests on the horizon.
This PRN CME activity is funded in part by unrestricted educational grants from:
Bristol-Myers Squibb, Gilead Sciences, Merck & Co, and ViiV Healthcare.
