A public health approach to addressing and preventing misdiagnosis in the scale-up of HIV rapid testing programmes

The (in)visibility of misdiagnosis in point-of-care HIV testing in Zimbabwe

There is a global trend to introduce point-of-care diagnostic tests, enabling healthcare workers at any level to test, provide results, and initiate immediate treatment if necessary. This article explores how healthcare workers conducting rapid HIV tests - in contexts of limited external quality assurance mechanisms - ascertain the accuracy of their test results. Drawing on interview data and participant observations from health facilities in Zimbabwe, we open the black box of misdiagnosis (in)visibility and reveal a range of proxies and markers that HIV testers draw on to develop certainty, or question, the reliability of their diagnostic classifications.