Table 1.

Specimen Panels Used for the Development, Optimization, and Evaluation of the Multiplex Assay

Specimen	Total no.	HIV-1 or dual	HIV-2	Negatives	Purpose
Panel 1	10	5	0	5	HIV-1 diagnostic optimization
Panel 2	13	4	7	2	Serotyping optimization
Panel 3	15	15*	0	0	Incidence optimization
Panel 4	85	37*	3	45	Small panel combined evaluation
Panel 5	1,500	570*	31	899	Large panel combined evaluation

Specimens are obtained from different countries (Kenya, Ivory Coast, Thailand, Uganda, United States, Cameroon, and South Africa) and commercially from Boca Biolistics. These specimens are well characterized using HIV ELISA and Western blot (for diagnosis), Multispot (for HIV-2) and LAg-Avidity EIA (for recency classification).

^*represents specimens that are further classified as HIV-1 recent or HIV-1 long-term by LAg-Avidity EIA.