Guidelines for organizing national external quality assessment schemes for HIV serological testing

Overview

These guidelines are destined for policy makers and programme planners wishing to introduce national external quality assessment schemes (NEQAS) for serological testing for human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV). They describe some important basic principles and the main practical aspects of NEQAS. The objectives of external quality assessment schemes are briefly discussed below and elsewhere (References 1 and 2 in bibliography, Annex 2). It is now widely accepted that quality assurance, quality control and quality assessment constitute an essential part of HIV testing and of diagnostic testing in general. Quality assessment is one component of a total quality assurance programme.