The conference started on an promising note for us at UNITAID, with French President Francois Hollande announcing in his welcome video that his country will implement a financial transaction tax on August 1st. We let our friends know:

Our main announcement at #AIDS2012 was an expected investment of US$ 140 million to bring "point-of-care" HIV diagnostics out of the drug development pipeline and into remote communities most affected by the pandemic.

What are point-of-care diagnostics?

UNITAID investments will target point-of-care products for three most critical diagnostic tests for HIV: Early Infant Diagnosis, CD4 and viral load. What are they?

1. The most effective diagnostic tool for children under 18 months is called called Early Infant Diagnosis (EID). As infants retain maternal antibodies that could result in a misleading diagnosis, EID uses DNA testing to diagnose children born to a mother living with HIV:

2.  CD4 testing is one of the most important laboratory measures - the lower the patient’s CD4 count, the more HIV has progressed. A patient’s CD4 count is one of the important determinants for when a patient should start treatment.

3. The HIV virus also causes an increase in the number of viral particles circulating in the patient’s bloodstream. Once antiretroviral treatment starts, the best measure of the effectiveness of the drugs is a patient’s viral load, or number of viral particles, over time. Viral load tests are vital for signaling when a patient needs to switch from first-line to second-line antiretrovirals