Table 1. HIV VL test methods.

Method	Assay (Abbreviation)	Sample Type	Sample Volume	Reportable Range copies/ml
1	Standard-of-care: Abbott RealTime HIV-1 [13] (Plasma VL)	Plasma	600μL or 200μL	40–10 million, 150–10 million
2	Point-of-care: Alere q HIV-1/2 [17, 18] (Alere q)	EDTA whole blood	25μL	2491–10 million
3	Abbott RealTime HIV-1 DBS revised prototype protocol [15] (Abbott DBS)	DBS	1 x 75μL spot	1000–10 million
4	Roche COBAS AmpliPrep/COBAS TaqMan HIV-1 Test v2.0 DBS free virus elution protocol [19] (Roche FVE)	DBS	1 x 75μL spot	400–10 million

Table 1 To provides a list of the assays evaluated: sample type, volume used and reportable range. Refer to cited references for details of each assay methodology.