HIV diagnosis relies on a sequence of assays that must both detect infection and distinguish HIV-1 from HIV-2. This distinction directly affects treatment selection, since several antiretroviral classes are ineffective against HIV-2. Screening can yield indeterminate or discordant results, and the confirmatory step determines whether the laboratory resolves that ambiguity or passes it on to the clinician.
In this webinar, Pr Agnès Gautheret-Dejean and Dr Vincent Guiraud examine the HIV diagnostic algorithm through multiple real-world clinical cases, comparing what the medical biologist and the treating physician each expect of differentiation and confirmatory testing. They will review the performance of the Geenius™ HIV 1/2 Confirmatory Assay in this setting and discuss how dialogue between the laboratory and clinic can shorten time to a definitive result and optimize patient management.
Tuesday
4:00 PM CEST / 7:00 AM PST
Level of Instruction
Intermediate, Advanced
Learning Objectives
- Describe the current diagnostic algorithms for HIV-1 and HIV-2 infection
- Discuss the sensitivity and specificity expected of differentiation and confirmatory assays
- Interpret Geenius™ HIV 1/2 Confirmatory Assay results across multiple real-world clinical cases
- Explain how biologist–clinician dialogue improves the timeliness and accuracy of patient management
Contact hours: 1 hr
Speakers
Pr Agnès Gautheret-Dejean
Laboratory of Virology, University Hospitals La Pitié Salpêtrière – Charles Foix; Theravir, INSERM UMR-S 1136, iPLESP; Laboratory of Microbiology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Université Paris Cité, Paris, France
Prof. Agnès Gautheret-Dejean is Professor of Virology at the laboratory of microbiology of the Paris Cité University and a hospital medical biologist in the Department of Virology at the La Pitié Salpêtrière-Charles Foix University Hospitals in Paris, where she has led decades of laboratory-based virology work at the interface of routine diagnostics and clinical research. Within this department, she has long overseen the biological supervision and validation of HIV serological testing across the full diagnostic pathway, from initial screening and rapid diagnostic tests, through HIV-1/HIV-2 differentiation, to Western blot confirmatory testing, making her one of France's most established voices on HIV confirmatory assay performance. Her research has directly evaluated the sensitivity, specificity, and real-world reliability of numerous screening and confirmatory platforms, including comparative studies of HIV-1/HIV-2 differentiation assays and multicenter assessments of confirmatory testing strategies, alongside her well-known work on human herpes viruses 6 and 7. She has authored close to ninety international peer-reviewed publications and supervised more than forty pharmacy theses, while continuing to teach the next generation of pharmacists and physicians in Paris. An expert for the French health authorities ANSM and HAS, and a corresponding member of the Académie Nationale de Pharmacie, she now pursues her research within Professor Anne-Geneviève Marcelin's team at Sorbonne Université and INSERM.
Dr Vincent Guiraud
Docteur Junior, DES Infectious and Tropical Diseases, Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, University Hospitals La Pitié Salpêtrière – Charles Foix, Paris, France
Dr. Vincent Guiraud is a junior physician in infectious and tropical diseases in Paris, whose research sits at the interface of HIV virology and clinical diagnostics. He completed his PhD in 2025 on the characteristics and evolution of HIV and retroviral vector integration sites, under the supervision of Professors Vincent Calvez and Valérie Pourcher, and trained in the Virology Laboratory of the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital under Professor Anne-Geneviève Marcelin. Working closely with Professor Agnès Gautheret-Dejean, he has published extensively on the diagnostic performance of HIV and HTLV serological assays, including comparative studies of rapid diagnostic tests and HIV-1/HIV-2 confirmatory strategies. Author of some twenty-five peer-reviewed publications and recipient of the 2026 ANRS Thesis Prize, he continues his research within Professor Marcelin's team at the Sorbonne Université.